The Long Recovery of Judy Hopps
by Sir Talen
Summary: After the events of "The Call" Judy returns to Bunnyburrow to begin the long process of physical recovery from her injuries. But even with the help of Nick, will she be able to return to being a police officer, or be forced to remain in the town where she grew up?
1. Chapter 1 Homecoming

"I'm fine."

"You're fine."

"Totally fine."

"Excellently fine."

"I'm not fine," Judy sighed, watching the green hills go by outside the observation car, as the high speed Zootopia Express zoomed towards Bunnyburrow.

"Yes, you are," Nick countered. "You got out of the hospital in record time."

"Five weeks is not a record," she replied. Judy moved her right arm experimentally, wincing slightly as she felt pain twinges running across her broken and re-healed clavicle and shoulder blade, listening to the bones click.

Nick smiled, leaning back in his seat, "Beats the heck out of the alternative."

"Yeah," she agreed, then sighed. "This is going to be the longest six months of my life."

"It's a vacation, enjoy it."

"It's recovery," Judy countered, nose twitching. "I need to get back into shape so I can retake the ZPD physical exam. If I don't make it..."

"You'll... be... _fine_ , Carrots," Nick firmly. "Unless you start pushing yourself too hard like you _always do_ and manage to pop a stomach staple or something. Slow and steady wins the race, remember?"

"I know, I know." She frowned. "I always thought that story was silly. Whoever heard of a talking tortoise anyway?"

"It's just a fable."

She grinned, some of her good humor coming back. "Like the one about the fox and grapes?"

" _Touche,"_ Nick allowed, and shut up until the train began to slow down as it approached Bunnyburrow Station. When it came to a halt he reached up into the overhead compartment and grabbed his and Judy's bags, slinging them both over his shoulder.

She frowned again. "I can carry my own bag, Nick."

The fox grinned back at her un-repentantly. "You can, but you won't."

"Give it!" Judy hopped upwards, making a grab for her pink duffle bag as Nick tried to lift it out of her reach. She just managed to hop high enough for her fingers to brush against it, before she fell back down, almost falling onto her tail before Nick reached down quickly to grab her by the scruff of her neck.

"See, you're pushing it," he admonished, setting her down on the floor.

"I could jump twice that high before," she panted. The ache in her abdominal muscles from the sudden strain reminded her that she was due for another dose of oxycodone when they reached the farm. _I've been sitting on that seat on the train for two hours, I shouldn't be_ ** _this_** __ _tired still._

"And you will again, just not today," Nick reassured her.

She waggled a finger at him, "You're being patronizing."

His ears twitched in amusement. "You're really adorable when you're annoyed."

"Am going to have to start calling you 'articulate' again to make you stop this?"

"Nope, that'll just make it worse for you."

She shouldered past him. "Dumb fox!"

He bowed at her. "Always!"

Together they made their way out of the train car and onto the platform. Waiting there was Tommy, one of Judy's many brothers, older than her by about ten years and fairly heavily built for a bunny rabbit. "Hey, Jude! Hey, Nick!" he called out.

"Hey Tommy," she greeted, while Nick shook his paw. "Mom and Dad didn't come to pick us up?"

"Dad's at the farmer's market. Mom's at Doc Steve's office, you can guess why."

"Again?" Judy said, in mock astonishment. More seriously, she added, "They're never going to get fixed, are they?"

Tommy shrugged. "They keep talking about it."

"They've been _talking_ about it since I was eight."

"They been talking about it since _I_ was eight, and that was ten years before you were born," Tommy said affably. He walked with them towards the parking lot. "How'ya doing, sis?" he asked, his tone growing more serious.

"I'm okay," she replied. "Everything still aches, and I'm tired all the time, but I'm getting better."

He nodded. "That's good. The kits will be glad. When we got Nick's call the day you were attacked, it was a pretty bad time. All the youngin's were pretty upset that their big sister Officer Judy got hurt."

"I can imagine. I was their age when we lost Jamie and Adam," Judy said, her ears drooping.

Nick looked at the two bunnies in curiosity. "I never heard this story. Who were Jamie and Adam?"

"Two of my big brothers," Judy explained. "They were riding in the bed of the old pickup truck we owned. Dad was driving back from town and one of the front tires blew out. He went into the ditch and they were flung out." She gave Nick a little shrug. "It was a pretty bad time, like Tommy said. Dad was awfully upset with himself."

"God, I know would be," Nick sad, looking horrified.

"As much as Mom and Dad worried about me becoming a cop, they tend to forget that being a farmer is one of the most dangerous occupations to have," Judy said, pulling herself up into the cab of the pickup, while Nick tossed their bags into the cargo bed. "Young kids plus heavy machinery equals a very bad accident if you slip up. Never mind pushing yourself too hard doing manual labor on a hot day and coming down with heatstroke."

"Or even more fun stuff like the grain silo exploding," Tommy added, grinning with morbid cheer.

"What was stored in it, kerosene?" Nick asked in bewilderment, as Tommy started the truck and pulled out onto the blacktop road towards the Hopps family farm.

"Nope, nothin' at all," Tommy started to explain. "You get a silo that's almost cleared out, and you've got lots and lots of little leftover grain flakes hanging in the air, all of 'em dry and ready to burn. One little spark, from a nearby fire slippin' in, an electrical short in the conveyor belt, or whatever, and it goes off like a fuel air explosion. If you're lucky it just blows the top of the silo off. If you're not..." Fortunately he didn't finish outlining the possibilities. Nick's wide-eyed City Mouse look was enough set Judy off laughing though.

"You think that's funny?" he asked her.

"How many things do we laugh at when we're patrolling that we never would if we were both civilians?" she pointed out.

Nick grinned, and slipped on his Ray Bans. "Good point."

"Like what?" Tommy asked.

"You want to give him the story about the two mice and the asphalt truck?" Judy prompted. _That_ had been a memorable event in Nick's first week of patrolling.

" _Yech_ , I'm not telling that one, Carrots," Nick replied with, mostly, feigned horror.

"Do I wanna know?" Tommy asked, ears perking up.

"Not before lunch," she said.

Tommy snorted briefly. "Yeah, I'll give that one a pass then."

The truck pulled off onto the dirt road leading to the farm. As they drove up to the house, Judy let out a brief, "Aw no, guys!"

Hanging from the porch railing was a pink cloth banner, with the words "Welcome home, Judy!" painted on it. Standing on the porch itself was at least fifty of her brothers and sisters, of all ages, but mostly younger than her, waving happily as they drove up.

"Surprise!" Tommy said cheerfully.

"Surprise, Carrots," Nick added.

"Nick, did you know about this?" she demanded.

"I cannot tell a lie," Nick declared, one hand over his heart, the other holding up his smart phone. "You didn't see me texting to your house to let them know we were almost here, since you were too busy talking to Tommy."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Sly fox."

"Dumb bunny," he replied, still grinning. He hopped out of the truck with her, grabbing both their bags again.

"Let me have mine, Nick.," she asked, cocking her head towards the crowd on the porch. "Just until we get to the house."

The fox's eyes flicked towards the crowd, and he nodded. "Right," he said, handing it over. Judy shouldered it and walked with him to the house, where her family waited for her eagerly.

"Hey guys, did you miss me?" she said, as she as nearly swamped by a wave of siblings. The chorus of _yeahs,_ and _are you okay, Judy?_ told her that her instincts had been right. The younger kits especially needed to see that she was alright, after weeks of secondhand reports about her health from Mom and Dad. So she kept her bag over her aching shoulder until she could safely put it down, and sat on the rickety old wicker chair by a small table, where she could sip an iced tea one of the older kits got her and listen to all the stories about what had been happening on the farm in her absence.

"So how long are you staying, Judy?" one of the older girls asked.

"A few months, until I can re-take my physical and get cleared for duty again," she replied.

"What, you're going to leave again?" another asked. "I thought you were staying for good this time."

"No, no," Judy said, giving them a smile that was harder to maintain the more she became aware of how much her shoulder and belly ached, never mind the clinging fatigue that seemed to never really go away, even after leaving the hospital. "I'm just staying for a while, until I'm better."

 _Just a while,_ she promised herself and hoped she wasn't lying.


	2. Chapter 2 The Hammock

When Nick had first come to visit the farm, he'd spent one night in the guest room and then declared that he'd sleep on the hammock rigged on the back porch for the rest of his stay.

"I'm not trying to be rude," he'd told Stu and Bonnie, "It's just that it's really... um..."

"Cramped?" Judy had put in helpfully.

"Something like that," he'd agreed. Later that evening, as they both leaned on the porch rail, looking up at the stars, he'd told her, "Living under that bridge for so long made me a little allergic to enclosed spaces."

"I can understand that. That dinky apartment I've got back in Zootopia is still huge when its just me instead of me and five of my sisters," Judy told him. After a moment she asked, "Is that the only reason?"

"No," he admitted with a grimace. "Look, I'm a modern fox, but I'm still a predator. Being stuck in a house with _four hundred_ bunnies..." He ran his paw over his ears. "It's not like I want to eat anybody, but all the _scents_ just put me on edge."

"Hey, I understand," she'd reassured him. "Besides, you can look up at the stars as you go to sleep."

His expression changed to a grin, as he glanced up at the Milky Way filling the sky. "Best night light around. You don't get a sky like that in Zootopia."

"No, you don't," Judy agreed, a little wistfully.

So weather permitting, like now, Nick kept his bags inside the house and slept curled into a comfortable ball on the hammock. Given his nocturnal nature, he usually took an extended siesta after lunch so he'd be rested up for the evening. So it was no surprise to Judy when she found him there, after she woke up from her own nap, bones aching and about fifteen minutes before she could take her next dose of painkiller.

What she hadn't expected was to find Nick buried underneath a veritable carpet of at least thirty little bunnies, from about four to ten years old, all asleep and snuggled close to him as the hammock swayed in the slight afternoon breeze. Only his nose was visible, and it wrinkled as she approached.

"That you, Carrots?" he asked, in a raspy stage whisper.

"Yeah," she answered softly. "What happened to you?"

"I don't know. One of 'em came up to me when I was settling down for my nap and asked if he could sleep with me. I figured there was plenty of room, so I said okay. Next thing I know I wake up to find out I'm part of some weird ancient bunny ritual that involves cuddling their victims until they expire from cuteness." He managed to snake out one paw from underneath the pile and waved it like a drowning victim. " _Hellllllllp."_

She snickered, "You could just wake them up."

"Aw, come on. I can't be that mean," Nick said.

Judy just shook her head, trying to suppress her laughter. Then she took a deep breath and said loudly in her best beat cop _What's all this then_ tone, " _Wow!_ I'm sure glad I found you guys! Mom's got all these _chores_ that need doing!"

The effect was something like an explosion of gray fuzzy popcorn. Thirty little bunnies woke up and launched themselves out of the hammock all at once, most of them using poor Nick as a springboard, flying off in all directions away from their big sister and the threat of chores on a warm summer afternoon.

Nick pushed himself upright, legs dangling over the edge of hammock as he rubbed his stomach. " _Ow,_ " he muttered. "Nice one, Carrots. I think I just got kicked in the appendix, not to mention my kidneys, stomach, and spleen."

"Sorry," Judy gasped between laughs, arms wrapped around her own aching stomach as Nick brushed random clumps of bunny fur off his flowered shirt and tie. "Hey it worked."

"Yeah," he agreed, dropping out of the hammock and to his feet. "Thanks for sparing me from waking them up myself and feeling like a meanie."

"No problem," she said. "I'll get Mom and Dad to post a new house rule. No more than one bunny can cuddle you at a time when you're napping."

"That'll work," Nick said amiably. "You get first dibs." He blinked, as if realizing what he just said, and added hastily, "Joke, Judy."

"Sure," she agreed, and wondered if her ears were as red as his appeared right now. "Uh, I gotta go back inside and get my next dose of pills," Judy told him quickly.

"Me too. Uh, I mean I'll be inside. In a minute," he replied.

She hopped back inside, wondering whether, joke or not, she'd take him up on that offer.


	3. Chapter 3 Play the Game

Judy Recovery Play the Game

"Hey Carrots, you got any polyhedrals?" Nick asked one afternoon. It had been raining all morning, and the farmhouse had become notably cramped as all of Judy's younger siblings grew bored and restless with being stuck inside.

"They're in a coffee can on the back shelf of the hobby room," she answered absently, not looking up from the Sudoku puzzle she'd been grumbling at for the past ten minutes. From upstairs she could hear her mom calling out to Teddy and Phil to turn down the volume on the PreyStation in their room, while on the living room coffee table in front of her Molly and Sassy were working on the same puzzle they'd been fussing over for a week.

"Thanks!" Nick scooted out the door, coming back a moment later to ask sheepishly, "Where's the hobby room?"

"First basement level, next to Dad's old train diorama," she provided. Nick disappeared down the basement steps, returning triumphantly ten minutes later with the coffee can and a frayed note pad under one arm, and a bundle of pencils in his opposite paw.

"Found 'em!" he called out to someone in the hallway. A moment later she heard the thumping of several sets of foot pads coming down the hallway, heading in the direction of the back porch.

Ears perking up in curiosity, Judy set the Sudoku book down and followed the commotion. It led out onto the porch, sheltered from the rain, where a half-dozen of her teenaged sibs sat in folding chairs in a half-circle around Nick, who was sporting a conical wizard's atop his head, made from purple cardboard paper and peppered with silver and gold star stickers. He had pulled out an old folding card table from God knew where, rulebooks, papers and dice spread across it, and was helping a couple of the kids finishing making their characters.

"Okay, we've already got two fighters, and two mages, but we could use an extra healer for this scenario," he advised them. Once they had settled arranging their stats, Nick smiled at them, cracked his knuckles, and then declared the ritual, "You all meet in a tavern…"

Judy leaned unobtrusively against an awning pillar, watching as Nick led the group through a simple scenario. An evening's rest in the tavern of an inn at the top of a remote mountain pass was interrupted as undead Dracon warriors began to climb out from an abandoned well. After defeating the initial assault, the party managed to climb down the well and trace the source of the outbreak, an ancient hidden temple of Lord Darkness, the god of everything Evil.

Nick guided them through the adventure with cheer, pointing out to some of the younger players skills their characters had that they may have missed using, and occasionally fudging a dice roll behind his makeshift GM's screen to make sure a damaging blow against a player's character didn't turn out to be a fatal one. As the game wore on more of Judy's family drifted out to the porch to watch, the younger ones shanghaied to get snacks for the players and GM, a couple of the older ones borrowed by Nick to play the attacking monsters, which they did with gusto.

By the time the last of the monsters were slain, the grateful tavern owners handed out rewards, and Nick calculated experience points, the rain had stopped and blue sky was starting to poke through the clouds. He gave the players a bow and they all scampered off to either play out in the damp grass, or get to work on chores delayed by the rain.

"That was pretty impressive," Judy said, settling down onto one of the folding chairs as Nick started gather up his notes and folding the table. "I didn't know you played _Gryphons & Gold_."

He grinned her, eyes bright with cheer, wider than his usual cynical half-lidded look. "Not since high school. How about you?"

"Same here," she admitted. "I gave it up when I went to community college to get my criminal justice degree."

"Which edition?"

"Fourth," she said.

"Hah. There are two kinds of _G &G_ players. Those who know 2nd Edition is best, and those who are _wrong_ ," Nick declared grandly. "Lemme guess, you liked to play paladins."

Judy's ears reddened slightly. "And foresters," she admitted. "How about you?"

Some of the cheer dropped out of his face, and his smile became lopsided. "I… usually ended up playing a rogue."

"Oh, sorry," she said, her ears drooping.

"Hey, I got good at it at least," he said, obviously trying to reassure her. "You should have seen me after they introduced bards as a playable class."

Judy giggled despite herself, shaking her head. "Oh, no…"

Nick's grin returned full force. "There was _nothing_ better than getting our GM, Phil, to agree to let me have some really minor perk, and then have him chuck a die at me after I used it to short circuit the plot he'd set up." He made a shocked face, grabbing his ears and shouting, "Wait! Nick, you can't do… aw, _shit!"_

Judy slid halfway out of her chair, laughing her head off. "I should have known you would have been a Class A rules lawyer, after you scammed me with that pawpsicle."

"The only thing better than getting away with something, is getting away with it because you followed all the rules," he admitted. "And to Phil's credit, he always let me get away with it."

"Tell you what," she said. "Give me a few days re-read the manuals, and I'll run a scenario where you can play the most palandiny paladin you want."

"Now that'll be something to look forward to, Carrots."


	4. Chapter 4: Those Who Survive

**Author's Warning:** Gut punch ahead.

His ears weren't as big as a certain bunny's, but Nick was started out of his doze in the hammock, as he heard the squeak of the screen door towards the front of the house. He rolled out of the hammock and landed lightly on his foot pads, checking the time on his phone briefly. It wasn't even 4:00 AM yet, early even by farmer bunny standards. _Can't be a burglar,_ he thought. The house was a good mile away from the main road, making it a fair jog for potential thieves. The Hoppses didn't even lock their doors. _So if no one is going in, someone must be going out. One guess who._

Silently, Nick dropped to all fours and began slinking near the ground, padding along silently until he came around to the front. Sure enough there was Judy, dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, walking at brisk pace. At this distance Nick doubted she could see him, given his superior night vision. _Shame on you, Judy. The doctors told you no exercising without supervision._ He smiled grimly, and then rose to his two feet to start following her. It would serve her right for him to come from behind and whisper "Boo!" into her ear, if he was still worried about her recovery from stomach surgery.

Judy walked along the brick path some earlier generation of bunnies had laid on the ground along the edge of the property, heading towards the tool shed. To Nick's surprise, she unlatched it and slipped inside, emerging a moment later with a basket in one paw and a garden trowel in the other. Nick found cover behind the trunk of an oak tree as she headed back towards the house, stopping in front of the bed of marigolds and primroses that Bonnie maintained in a bed circling the house. He watched as Judy dug up several clumps of flowers, then headed back down the path, taking a sharp right towards the large backyard, heading in the direction of a small, squared off area defined by more flowerbeds that Nick had never investigated in his previous visits.

He moved forward, as Judy kneeled in front of the bed and began carefully transferring her load of flowers from the basket to the ground. When he was six feet away, Nick stopped, cleared his throat briefly, and said softly, "Little early for gardening, isn't it, Judy?"

Judy started briefly, then turned towards him briefly and answered in the same soft tone, "Good morning, Nick. Yeah, it is, but I wanted to do this when it was quiet, before the house woke up."

"So what's the big secret?" he asked, squatting down beside her.

She patted the last bit of dirt around the flowers she'd transferred, then said, "You've never been to this part of yard, have you?"

"No," he admitted. "I never had a reason to, and everybody seems to avoid it anyway. Your sibs don't even kick balls near here." He glanced at the ground enclosed by the beds. Set in the grass were a series of small brass plaques, each about a foot long and half again as wide. As he looked closer to examine them in the starlight, he felt the ruff on the back of his neck begin to rise up as he realized what he was seeing.

 _Jessica Hopps,_ read the first plaque, _Born February 18th, 2016. Died February 18th, 2016._

His eyes turned to the next one. _Martin Hopps. Born March 3rd, 2015. Died March 3rd, 2015._

 _Frederick Hopps. Born April 14th, 2014. Died April 16th, 2014._

His eyes went to somewhere in the middle of the little forest of grave markers, finding _James Hopps. Born June 3rd, 1981, Died August 20th, 1992,_ and _Adam Hopps, Born June 3rd, 1981, Died August 20th, 1992._

There were an even thirty of the little brass markers. Nick's eye flicked over them, counting them all, swallowing hard as he saw a line of four, all clumped together with the same birth and death date. Finally, he managed to choke out, "Judy, what the _hell_?"

"It's basic statistics, Nick," Judy answered calmly, rising up to her feet. "About ten percent of bunnies are stillborn. Mom has had over four hundred kits. Mathematically speaking she's doing better than average."

Nick blinked in disbelief. "How can your motherl walk and talk like a normal, _sane_ mammal, after losing thirty of her children? How could she and your dad not have gotten themselves _fixed,_ rather than have to worry that every time she has a litter, one of them will come out already dead?" Suddenly Stu's funny habit of bursting into tears at the least slightly sad thing... wasn't quite so funny anymore.

"Mom and Dad are farmers," she answered, still in that maddening, matter-of-fact tone. "That means they're breeders. They have to be, to have enough paws to run a farm this big. Most bunnies do voluntarily fix themselves either around age sixteen or after they have a single litter. They have to, otherwise we would have overrun the planet by now, after the Great Compromise ended the predator hunts. The ones that don't know the risks they're taking, and accept the consequences."

"'Accept the…'" Nick sputtered. He waved in the direction of the house, and by extension her sleeping parents. "I saw them after the mess at the asylum was taken care of, while they were still waiting for you to wake up. Those were not the faces of two prey who were just going to shrug their shoulders and say 'Whoops, we lost another one.' They were _scared_ for you."

Judy smiled wryly, as if at some private joke. "Yeah, they were scared for me. They were scared for me most of my life, when they realized I was dead set on becoming a cop. They were scared when I got on the train to head to Zootopia for the first time. Who do you think gave me that stupid anti-fox spray? They were terrified I was going to get killed my first day on the job." She shrugged, wincing in pain as her healed shoulder moved. "But if I had died, they would have wept, and then moved on. They would have had to. Bunnies are small, and weak, and not very hardy, Nick. I worked around those facts when I wanted to become a police officer, but I never pretended they weren't there. Mom and Dad don't pretend either."

"So what are you doing now?" He gestured towards the newly planted flowers.

"A little memorial. We plant flowers here every once while, when we want to remember," Judy said. "I wanted to do it now, while it was still quiet."

"Because you survived, and they didn't?" Nick asked gently.

"Yeah." She turned away from him briefly, wrapping her arms around herself, as if she was cold. "With all the damage I took, I should have died. But I didn't." She ducked her head down briefly, drawing in a breath as she turned away from him. "Nick, I don't know if… if I should return to the force."

Nick frowned, his ears turning back in surprise. "What? You mean not even try? Judy the Determinator, just giving up?"

"I gave up once before," she pointed out.

"Yeah, because Mayor Smellweather's buddy Doug ambushed you with those questions at the press conference," Nick pointed out. He smiled wryly. "Though I suppose me blowing up at you right after that didn't exactly help."

"Three months of protests and riots, because I babbled out the first thing in my head instead of taking a moment to think," she said darkly. "And _God_ , when I saw poor, sweet, _Clawhauser_ being transferred down to Records, because of what _I did._ " She turned back towards him, pulling at her ears. "I am _always_ rushing in without thinking, Nick. I did it that day when I said those horrible things, I did it when we were trailing Volkov's goon and got myself nearly killed. All that happens when I do, is I end up hurting people who don't deserve it, Like Clawhauser, like my parents… like _you._ "

Nick kneeled down to eye level with Judy, taking gentle hold of her shoulders. "Carrots, I don't want you _ever_ change, because you're worried about hurting me. The only one who could ever really screw up my life was _me,_ especially when I was still being a cynical bastard. You showed me that I didn't _have to_ be like that, and that's because you were just being you. I don't want you to become some… some… _imaginary_ Judy Hopps, that you think you need to be, instead of the Judy Hopps that I know you are."

"And what Judy Hopps is that?" she asked, sniffling a little.

"The Judy Hopps that is smart, and brave, and, trustworthy, and loyal, and who _always_ finds a way to win," he replied firmly.

"Is that who you see when you look at me?" she asked softly.

"Yes, yes I do," he told her.

She sniffed, face pressed into his chest as he hugged her. "Thanks, Nick," she murmured into his shirt.

"I'll always be here for you, Carrots. Count on it."


	5. Chapter 5 Conversation on a Country Road

"I know we're out in the sticks but _come on,_ " Nick muttered to himself as he stared at his phone in dismay.

"What's up, Nick?" Tommy asked, coming from inside to look over Nick curiously on the front porch.

"Need to get a Zuber ride to pick some protein from the store, but there's no service in this area," he replied.

"Around here Zuber is called 'Y'all got room in the back for me?'" Tommy said with a chuckle. "I'm headin' into town anyway to pick up some shop towels from Burrow Depot. You can come along if you want and we can swing by the Feed Lion."

"Thanks!" Nick followed Tommy out to the truck, settling in the passenger seat. As the batter blue pickup pulled out onto the blacktop. "I really appreciate this."

"If you really need something, all ya have to do is tell Mom to add it to the shopping list," Tommy said.

Nick made a dismissive wave of his paw. "I wouldn't want to presume. I'm causing enough trouble just being a houseguest for six months. I can't ask your parents to be buying fish patties and bug burgers on top of that."

"Ain't no trouble," Tommy countered. "Besides, you're keeping an eye on Judy for us."

He frowned. "Judy can take care of herself."

"Y'know what I mean," Tommy said amiably. When Nick didn't reply, he added, "You get along real well with the kits too."

"I like Bonnie and Stu's kits," Nick said in agreement. "They don't seem to… I don't know, _judge me_ , like some kids did when I was their age."

" _Wellllll,_ " Tommy drawled, "with Gideon Grey around as an example, I can't see them looking at a fox and seeing somebody scary. Not that his folks weren't nasty in their own way, but that wasn't anything to do with them being preds, more like just being a couple of jackasses. Sad that them dying when he was a teenager was the best thing that could'a happened to the poor kid."

"I guess so. Gideon turned out to be a nice guy."

"Ayup." After a moment he said, "You're a pretty nice fella yourself."

Nick shrugged. "Don't know about that, but I'm getting better."

"Judy likes you."

"Judy likes everybody. She's a serial liker."

"That's a point," Tommy agreed. "She hugs a lot too."

"That's true," Nick agreed, remembering how soft and warm she felt when they'd hugged by the graves two days ago. He'd walked her back to the house and fixed pancakes for her, while she'd finished composing herself before the rest of the house woke up. Tommy had been the first one to come downstairs as a matter of fact. His eyes flicked suspiciously to the older bunny, but Tommy's eyes were firmly on the road. "Er…?" he tried experimentally.

"Saw y'all in the back of the yard, near the graves," Tommy answered, still keeping his eyes on the road. "I'd heard her moving around, and thought she was sneaking out to exercise or something. Once I saw she went to the shed and then got the flowers, I had a pretty good idea what she was doing. Did wonder why you were following her though."

"I was worried about her exercising too," Nick admitted. "So I made sure she wasn't going to pop her stitches pushing herself."

"Thought that might be it. Then I saw you talking to her, and then, ah, hugging awfully close, and I wasn't sure what was goin' on."

Nick blinked. "Tommy, are you asking what my _intentions_ are towards your sister?"

The bunny shrugged. "I s'pose I am."

He closed his eyes and rubbed his muzzle briefly. "Look, Judy is my _partner,_ okay? We're in each other's pockets twelve hours a day, six days a week. In each other's heads too. We have to be, so we don't second guess each other while we're out on patrol. Fortunately we're friends too. Good friends, but _just_ friends, okay? It isn't… can't be... anything more than that."

"Why d'ya suppose that is?" Tommy asked, sounding genuinely curious. "Seein' as you're such good friends and all."

"She's prey, I'm a predator, isn't that explanation enough?"

"It's Judy we're talkin' about, so no."

Nick nodded, and tried again. "Look, I… didn't have many friends when I was growing up. Sneaky fox and all that. I mean, I had a few, but the ones I could count on to watch my back I could probably keep track of with the fingers of one paw after a shop class accident." He took a deep breath to calm down, before he started babbling. "A friend like Judy, I honestly don't think I've ever had. Not even compared to Finnick, and I've known him the longest of any of them."

"So what's the problem?" Tommy asked.

"The problem is, that I don't dare screw that up. I could name you a dozen reasons why anything closer wouldn't work. If I messed up what we have right now by demanding it be something more, I… I honestly don't know what I'd do." Well, he did have an idea what he'd do, but he'd grown out of thoughts like that once he'd escaped high school, mostly.

"I don't think you're givin' Judy enough credit."

Nick snorted. "Judy's reserve at the Bank of Wilde is pretty much anything short of asking me to cut off my tail, and maybe even that if I could figure out how to reattach it."

"That so?" Tommy tapped his claws on the steering wheel. "But 'just friends.'"

"That's so, and yeah, 'just friends.' Like I said, I've never had a friend like Judy."

"Seems like." The older bunny spared him a look, then turned off the road into the Burrow Depot parking lot. "We're here. I'm gonna get those shop towels. Feed Lion is across the street. I'll meet you back here in fifteen minutes."

Nick nodded and stepped out of the truck. "Thanks, Tommy, for… everything," he said awkwardly, his usual glibness escaping him.

"No problem." Tommy seemed to consider something, then said, "If you're such good friends, y' might want to think about what keeping things like you said to yourself might mean, if you're so worried about her good opinion of you."

With that the bunny turned away towards the hardware store, leaving Nick to think hard about old fables, and how the ones about foxes were mostly about them outsmarting themselves.


	6. Chapter 6 Back on Track

"It's been a week."

"Yes."

"I'm not as tired as I was when we first arrived."

"Yes."

"I think I'm ready."

"Yes."

"Are you just going to keep saying 'yes', Nick?"

"No. _Ow!_ Now I know you're feeling better," he said, rubbing his bicep where she'd punched it.

Judy looked up at him, foot tapping impatiently in the grass. "Are you going to let me start exercising or not?"

He spread his paws out, "You never needed my permissionto get started. I'm just here to tell you when to _stop_."

"Right, I knew that." Judy flexed her arms and legs, feeling her underused muscles complain in the cool morning air. She was wearing her blue training singlet from her days at the police academy, for luck. Which was clearly magical thinking, but anything that helped her get into the right mindset was good as far as she was concerned. "Okay, I'm going to get back into shape. I can meet the goals. I can _beat_ the goals."

"Which are?" Nick prompted.

"Half-marathon, first part in a sandstorm simulating Sahara Square, second part in 20 degree weather simulating Tundratown," she recited. "Complete the ten meter overhand bars. Complete the ice wall climb. Complete the vine climb. Demonstrate ability to physically subdue a large mammal suspect. Achieve passing accuracy scores with taser, knock out darts, and pistol."

"And what else?"

" _Try not to die!_ " they shouted together, then they both burst out laughing.

"Let me get into character," Nick said, regaining his breath. From his back pocket he pulled out a dark blue ball cap with ZPD emblazoned across it, settling it between his ears. He drew in a breath and shouted in his best Major Friedkin imitation, "You're _dead,_ longears!"

"Don't!" Judy choked back a laugh, holding her stomach with one arm as she waved a finger at him with the other. "If I start laughing I'll never be able to do this!"

"Sorry." Nick grinned at her. "First things first: _Endurance._ "

"Right," Judy agreed. "Once around the farm, then stop for breakfast."

"One foot in front of the other."

"Right! I can _do this!_ "

 _Fifteen minutes later…_

Judy flopped face first onto the ground, ears laying flat on the grass, her whole body aching. "I can't do this!"

Nick squatted down beside her. "It's your _first day_ , Carrots," he tried to reassure her. "Give yourself a break."

"I didn't even make a half- _mile_."

"Yeah, and four weeks ago you couldn't even get out of bed. Imagine where you'll be four weeks from now."

She turned her head to look up at him, lifting an ear out of the way so she could see him. "You're being patronizing," she accused.

Nick nodded. "Yep, I learned from the best. I'm a real patronizing fella."

" _Articulate_ patronizing fella," Judy corrected. She rolled over onto her back and let out a sigh. "It's not that I don't appreciate it. It's just that I'm too tired to bite your ears off."

"Ah, the savage saber toothed bunny, reverting to her primitive instincts." He pulled a water bottle out of his pocket. "Drink up, Og, you need the fluids."

" _Oog, yar!_ " she muttered, taking the bottle and sipping the nearly ice cool water. "You're going to make me walk back to the house, aren't you?"

"Unless you want me to haul you in a wheelbarrow, that's your only option," Nick told her.

"No thanks." She took Nick's pre-offered hand and pulled herself up to a sitting position.

"Where's it hurt exactly?" he asked.

Judy grimaced. "My stomach and shoulder mostly, also my hips. Why my _hips_ I don't know. They're one of the few places I _didn't_ get injured."

"Because you haven't been using them much recently," he told her. "Haven't you been reading all the aftercare printouts Doctor Weissmouser gave you?"

"Yes, mostly," she admitted. "I just… I had trouble with the physical stuff at the academy too, but it was because I had to figure my own way of overcoming the obstacles, not because my body was betraying me."

"Denial's not just a river in Mississippi," Nick advised, and she gave him a weak smile for the equally weak joke. "Being able to move faster and jump higher than most everyone was your main physical strength. Now you've got to start with baby bunny hops all over again, and it's driving you nuts."

" _Yes,_ " Judy agreed through clenched teeth. "If I can't…" She didn't finish the sentence. _...I don't know what I'll do._

"You can, you _will_. Heck, you _did_ just now. Yeah, you only walked a quarter-mile, but that's a quarter-mile more that you could have done two weeks ago, and tomorrow you'll go even further."

"This afternoon," Judy countered. She got her feet under herself and stood up, holding onto Nick's shoulder to steady herself. _Hips, ow,_ _ **hips, ow**_!

"Tomorrow," Nick repeated. He smiled and shrugged amiably, "Or this afternoon, _if_ you take it easy the rest of the morning."

"Deal," she agreed, then smiled determinedly, " _after_ I walk back to the house."

"Deal," he agreed, and shook her paw.

Every step of the walk back hurt, but she walked it without pause, Nick watching her all the way.


	7. Chapter 7 Nick and Bonnie

"I hate my body," Judy declared. She was lying on her back in the bed in the guest room, her old room she'd shared with four of her sisters fully occupied, after the usual shift when older siblings moved out of the house. Nick sat on the edge, smiling down at her, the door propped open so no one started getting _ideas_ about their relationship.

She'd walked back successfully, then rested like a good bunny until after lunch, when she'd walked again. This time around she actually had walked a full mile, only for Nick to make good his threat and bring her back in a wheelbarrow. Judy had been too tired and achey to argue with him, though she had insisted on walking herself up the stairs to her bed, rather than be carried.

"Think you can do it again tomorrow?" Nick asked.

"Slave driver," she declared.

"I have a copy of _The Nitwit's Guide to Physical Therapy_ and I'm not afraid to use it," he replied. "Starting a recovery program is easy. Maintaining it over time is the real slog."

 _Of course he'd read the manual on what to do, because he's Nick_ , Judy thought wryly. When she'd helped him move into his apartment, she'd found a well-thumbed copy of the _Junior Ranger Scout Handbook_ in a box, plus copies of everything from self-help books to beginner's knitting techniques. Sometimes she wondered if his mild obsession about figuring out how to do things the "right" way was a coping technique for all the anti-fox prejudice he'd put up with over the years. "I know," she admitted, "just let me have ten minutes to whine before we start again tomorrow."

"Fair enough," he agreed. "Now roll over."

"Why?"

"Ask me no questions, I tell you no thinly contrived justifications," Nick replied. He made a spinning motion with his finger. " _Roll._ "

"Rolling." Judy turned over onto her belly, grabbing a pillow to hug and support her chin. A moment later she felt a pair of tweezers pressing against her footpads. "Nick, what are you doing?" She tried to turn her head to see what he was up to, but couldn't see around his tail, which was curled across the back of her knees.

"PIcking out the little pebble shards still stuck in your pads from your walk," he answered, as she felt the tug of something tiny and uncomfortable being removed, that she'd only barely been aware of compared to her overall body ache. After a few minutes she felt something warm being poured over her toes. "I'm going to give your feet a rubdown, okay?"

"Okay." A moment later she felt his fingerpads rubbing the oil into her toes. Judy closed her eyes, feeling some of the tension in her body recede as Nick massaged her aching feet. "Ohh…."

"Better?" he asked softly.

'Mmm-hmm," Judy murmured into her pillow.

"How do your calves feel?"

"Could use a rub…" A moment later she felt his thumbs rubbing up and down her aching calf muscles, making her let a pained squeak.

"Okay?" he asked, pausing.

"Okay," she confirmed. "It hurts, but it's a good hurt."

Nick nodded and continued. After another minute having her spine removed through her toes, his breast pocket beeped and the fox pulled out his phone. "Gotta take my pills," he said, grimacing slightly. He looked down at her. "You take your pills?"

"Yes, Mom," Judy replied. "Took my Noon dose of painkiller. Afternoon one is at dinner time."

"Good."

She felt him pull the quilt that was folded at the end of the bed over her. "I'm not _sleepy_ ," she began to protest, fighting the urge to yawn. " _Cheese and Carrots!_ I've been doing nothing but sleep for _weeks_."

"Yeah, but today you earned it, one hundred percent. I'll wake you up at dinnertime," Nich reassured her.

Judy gave him a nod, feeling her eyes shut even as he quietly closed the door.

Nick stepped out into the hallway and closed the door softly, fetching his anti-anxiety pills out of his pocket. Almost two months now since the Night Hunter incident, and he'd taken them every day like a good boy. He popped out two tabs of temazepam and dry swallowed them, waiting for the slight mellowing effect to kick in.

Nevertheless he jumped anyway when he heard Bonnie's quiet, "Hello, Nick. How's Judy?" behind him.

"Fine, she's just taking another nap," he replied, turning towards her. "She wore herself out walking today."

"I know," Bonnie replied. "I'm glad she's moving again. It's not like Judy at all to just _sit_ for a week."

"Don't I know it," Nick agreed. "She runs me ragged when we're doing a walking patrol."

Bonnie gestured to the pill bottle still in Nick's paw. "What's that? Your arm and shoulder still hurting from when they were sprained?"

That would be a very logical conclusion, Nick thought, one that Bonnie would let drop if he confirmed it. Just one of those little lies he had been so good at way back when.

 _Sly fox._

"No, these aren't pain pills. They're for anxiety," he admitted reluctantly.

"Anxiety?" Bonnie asked, ears perking up in curiosity. "You never seemed the nervous sort to me, Nick."

"Yeah well, y'know, stress of patrolling etcetera, etcetera," Nick hedged cautiously.

Bonnie turned, motioning for Nick to follow her as began walking down the hallway towards the stairs. "I can't imagine what it was like, being there when Judy was hurt so badly."

Nick nodded grimly, remembering Judy laying on the sidewalk, stomach slashed open by Volkov's polar bear minion, blood pooling around her as he stuck his fingers in the wound, trying to stem the tide pumping from her artery as he screamed for help into his radio. "That's part of it, yeah."

"And then there was that horrible Volkov vixen, drugging you, making you want to hurt me and Stu," she added.

"That's…. another part of it," he admitted.

They reached the stairwell. Bonnie paused in front of it, turning to block Nick from making some excuse and slipping past her down the stairs. "For somebody who loves to talk as much as you do, you haven't said more than ten words to me or Stu since you got here, Nick. You think we're dumb bunnies who couldn't figure out why?"

Nick rubbed his face briefly and sat on the stairs beside Bonnie. "No, I just… Damn it, I almost _ate_ you. You should be scared to death of me."

"Why, because of Volkov's drug?"

"It's not just that." He drew in a breath and tried to gather his thoughts. "Night Howler induced savagery, made predators lose everything that made them civilized and attack mammals at random. It made an _otter_ into a snarling beast, and in pre-Great Compromise days all they ever ate were fish and clams anyway. That's not how _any_ predator used to act back then, unless they were rabid, otherwise we would never have been able to form the civilization we have right now. Night _Hunter…_ I think… I think if we were living in the days before the Compromise, that's how I would have been." He ran his paw over his face again. "It didn't strip me of my intelligence, it stripped me of my _morality._ One damned little pellet made killing and eating you and Stu seem like the most natural thing in the world."

He stood up again. gripping the stair rail, looking away from her. "I have spent my whole life living on the margins, running scams, being the sly fox everyone thought I should be. Hell, even other foxes think like that. There's a reason why Reynard and Robin Hood are culture heroes for us, we love our clever rogues. But I tried to be _good_ rogue _._ Even when I was running my scams I may have been lying my ass off but I was at least within the _letter_ of the law."

NIck turned back towards her, palms spread wide. "Then, after years, I _finally_ manage to break out of it. Having Judy pin that badge on my chest was one of the happiest moments of my life. I was a _police officer_ now, following the law and being good are my _job._ I didn't have to be the sly fox anymore, I didn't _have to_ run scams to survive." He was breathing hard now, like he'd been running. "Then that crazy bitch Volkov shot me with her Night Hunter pellet and _took it all away from me,_ made me try and _kill_ the parents of my best friend _._ "

"Nick, I was there when she shot you," Bonnie said quietly. "I saw you _struggling._ Yes, it made the predator part of you want to eat us, but the part that was Officer Nick Wilde still knew it was wrong." She cocked her head for a moment, then said, "Think of it this way; the part of you that was trying to hurt us, that was the Night Hunter. The part of you that _saved_ us, that was Officer Wilde, and I'm grateful that he was there."

"I… I hadn't thought of it quite like that," Nick admitted. He took another breath, trying to relax and let the temazepam do its job. "Sorry," he muttered.

"Nick," Bonnie said, laying a paw on shoulder, "I don't know if you figured it out yet, but you're part of our family now, understand? Just like you're part of the ZPD, you're part of Hopps Family Farm." She shrugged. "I mean, half the kits are calling you Uncle Nick anyway."

Nick raised an eyebrow, one ear flopping to the side, disconcerted. "I never figured on being anybody's uncle, much less to a bunch of bunnies."

"Well, you are. So if Uncle Nick ever has anything that's giving him trouble in his mind, you just come to us, all right? Family stick together."

He smiled, remembering his mom. "Yeah, they do. Thanks, Bonnie."

"You're welcome." He leaned down to accept a hug for her. Then Bonnie gave him a little poke in the arm. "Now wake up Judy and wash your paws. DInner is in ten minutes."

Nick's smile turned up into a grin. " _Yes, Ma,"_ he drawled.


	8. Chapter 8 Unwanted Assistance

"Run, Bun, run!" Nick shouted from the fence line, as Judy jogged along the path. She turned and waved to him and the dozen or so kits sitting on the fence, cheering her on. Two weeks of building up her endurance and she was _finally_ able to run again, at least for short bursts.

 _Longer bursts,_ she told herself, glancing at the FitNip at her wrist, its timer running down the seconds. _A full minute, you can do it!_

She'd already turned and was heading back towards Nick and his entourage when the timer bleeped and she slowed down to a walking pace. Judy smiled to herself as the kits cheered and Nick beamed at her. The mere fact she was able to walk, not drag herself along in exhaustion, even after that speed burst, was enough to make her grin back at them as they cheered.

"Good going, Judy," Nick greeted, pulling a water bottle from the cooler beside him and handing it over. "How are you feeling?"

"Good," she panted. She took a long swing on the ice cold water and continued. "Stomach is a little bit twingy, but nothing like before."

"Terrific. Take five to rest up and maybe you can start again carrying the hand weights. We need to work on your shoulder."

Judy grimaced, but nodded in reluctant agreement. "You're right." She sat down in the grass, leaning against a fence post, and took another swig of ice water. "I'm so glad I can _run_ again."

"Yeah, but no hopping for another week," Nick warned. An old Roaming Steers song began playing on his phone, and he drew it out to answer, "Hi, Mom! What's up?" As Judy watched, his cheerful expression turned to one of confusion. "No, I haven't gotten a new bank account. No, I haven't sent you anything. I told you, I'm on unpaid administrative leave, I'm not going to get paid again for about another four months. All I've just got is what was in my account after my last paycheck, and I have to use that to keep my apartment." He paused, his ears turning back. "It was for _how much_?" Nick closed his eyes, rubbing his forehead with his fingers, as if he was developing a headache. "Okay, Mom. Look, I gotta check into this. _Don't_ spend any of it until I get back to you, got it? Thanks. Love you, too." He hung up and slipped his phone back into his shirt pocket.

Ears perked up in curiosity, Judy asked, "Is everything alright?"

"Yes, and no," Nick replied, looking irritated. "Someone, out of the goodness of their heart no doubt, just deposited a _fifty thousand_ z-buck money order into my mom's bank account."

"Who would do that?" Judy frowned, realizing the answer, and liking it as little as Nick did.

He nodded, catching her understanding. "I'll bet it can be traced back to the Little Rodentia Business Protection Association. 'In gratitude for your son's bravery in stopping the recent terrorist action, etcetera.' Looks like, Mr. Big decided to give my mom a hand, since her brave son is out of work and can't supplement her Zootopia Social Benefits check." Nick shrugged ironically. "Guess I'm back in his good graces, at least until I can give him another skunk butt rug."

"Nick, if anyone finds out about this, you could be in a lot of trouble," Judy said, rising to her feet. "I mean, Chief Bogo is willing to turn a blind eye to me being Little Judy's godmother, because it means I can actually patrol Little Rodentia's streets and not leave it all to Mr. Big's organization. You getting what looks like a _bribe…_ " She didn't have to finish the sentence, from the pained nod he gave her.

"On top of my scam artist history, yeah, it's a problem. So is trying to return it."

'You have to give it back," she said firmly.

"Yes, but _gracefully._ " Nick took a deep breath, pulled out his phone again, and hit the speed dial. After a moment he said, "Hi, this is Officer Nicholas Wilde ZPD. I'd like to speak to the Association Chairman, please." After a pause he added with menacing cheer, "I suggest you check your list. No, not that list, the _important_ list. I should be on it." After another moment, he smiled tightly and replied, "Thank you."

A minute later he said, "Mr. Big, thank you for your time, I know you're a busy rodent. I just wanted to thank you and the BPA for the very... _generous_ donation to my mother's bank account. I can say truthfully that it was quite unexpected. Yes sir, since I was put on leave it has made things a bit difficult for her, but nothing she couldn't normally handle. Yes sir, I know how you like pay your debts. I would tell you though, sir, that everything I did was as a serving ZPD officer. I never expected financial compensation. Oh no, I _like_ money. I like it a lot. I'm sure you understand though, about the importance propriety. An officer or his family receiving, er, _unexpected_ income supplements, well, certain people might get silly ideas in their heads about our relationship." _Beat._ "Of course I love my mother, Mr. Big, that's why I called you. She was rather surprised at the unexpected largess, and was hoping I could explain it to her. Oh, as much as I'd like to speak to you in person about it, that's not possible right now. I'm actually living in Bunnyburrow at the moment, at the Hopps Family Farm, with Judy while she recovers." Nick's smile, which he'd maintained during the conversation, became suddenly fixed, as his eyes widened in barely suppressed panic. "That's… very unexpected of you. I'll let her know. I… um… am looking forward to speaking to you. You too, sir." He ended the call, and sat with a thump on top of the cooler.

"What happened?" Judy demanded, as Nick fumbled to put his phone back in his pocket.

"Mr. Big, while understanding my concerns, is very adamant about not making my mother give all that lovely money back," Nick said, his panicked smile still on his face. "He'd like to discuss it with me."

"So you're going back to Zootopia?"

"No, he's coming here."

Judy blinked, ears falling flat to her head. "Mr. Big is coming here? To Bunnyburrow? To my parent's farm?"

"Yeah," Nick confirmed, his grin switching from panicked to manic. "Better tell your mom to set an extra place at the table. _Company's coming._ "


	9. Chapter 9 A Visit From Mr Big

The long white limousine came to a halt in on the gravel driveway in front of the farmhouse. Judy stood with Nick and her parents as Raymond, a seven foot tall polar dressed in a black limo driver suit, stepped out and opened the door, letting Kevin out. Kevin had his paws cupped carefully in front of him as he walked up to the porch, Mr. Big, Fru-Fru, and Little Judy standing in his palms.

"Mr. Big, Fru-Fru, it's good to see you again," Judy greeted cheerfully. Beside her Nick stood nearly frozen, a smile fixed on his face, not quite taking attention away from his panic floofed tail.

"Hello again, Judith," Mr. Big rasped. "Thank you for letting me visit your lovely home."

"Wouldn't have dreamed of turning you away," she admitted truthfully. Judy gestured to her mom and dad. "These are my parents, Bonnie and Stuart Hopps, and these are my sibs." The four dozen or so of her brothers and sisters who had gathered on the porch to watch Mr. Big's arrival all gave him little waves. "Mom, Dad, this is Mr. Big. He's, ah, prominent business mammal in Zootopia, with interests in Little Rodentia and Tundra Town."

"How do, Mr. Big?" her dad said, offering his finger for a shake. "Quite a surprise to hear about you coming out here."

"Very well, thank you. It occurred to me that Little Judy hadn't had a chance to see the countryside since she was born, and my daughter and I thought it would be nice visit Godmother Judy to see that she is well," Mr. Big said politely. "Such a terrible mess with that awful Volkov and her people hurting Zootopia's hero bunny, and of course what happened to you and your wife."

"Yep, it was, um, quite an adventure," Dad said carefully, probably mindful of all the younger kits listening in. "Why don't we call come inside? Dinner is just about ready."

Mom and Dad led their guests into, the two polar bear managing to just barely fit through the bunny sized front door. As they waited for the crowd of kits to clear, Judy gave Nick's paw a squeeze. "Good so far," she said with as much confidence as she could.

"The night is young," Nick replied, blowing out his breath. They went in together to the farmhouse's dining hall, to find Mr. Big and his family seated at the head of the table, at a little table made out of an upturned blueberry basket, one of Molly's handsewn doilies serving as a tablecloth, with jam jars serving as stools. Raymond and Kevin sat hunched over at one of the smaller side tables, heads brushing the ceiling, somehow having acquired about a half-dozen kits each, who were crawling over the two bears' lap, back, and shoulders in curiousity.

"Where in Bunnyburrow did your mom and dad get a shrew sized tea set?"" Nick wondered _sotto voce_ , as Bonnie carefully poured iced tea for Mr. Big and Fru-Fru.

"It's from Jill's dollhouse," Judy told him.

"Ah." Some of Nick's usual humor returned as he asked, "You gonna tell Mr. Big and Fru-Fru that?"

"Heck no!"

Dinner was a carrot and spinach lasagna, which everyone dug into with gusto, Little Judy getting her muzzle cheerfully smeared with tomato sauce. Then the little toddler looked up at her bunny namesake in between bites to ask, "God'ma Judy okay?"

"Godmother Judy is doing fine," Judy told her gently. This is seemed to satisfy the toddler, for she then began to alternate between taking bite of her food and trying to chew her own toes.

"It is good to see you well, Judith," Mr. Big added. "We were all very worried about you."

She shrugged, her injured shoulder clicking. "I survived. I just hope I can get back into shape to retake my physical."

"You must. Zootopia, especially Little Rodentia, needs its bunny cop." Mr. Big frowned slightly. "I'm told Chief Bogo is considering hiring mice to patrol Little Rodentia. I'm not sure how I feel about that. It would be good for our people, but…" He gave a little Gallic shrug. No, the _de facto_ ruler of Little Rodentia in all but name wouldn't be happy about cops finally patrolling his territory. _Too bad,_ Judy thought quietly. _Rule of law for the win._

"The ZPD's main problem is that isn't really setup to deal with smaller mammals in its ranks," Judy admitted. "Before I came along, the smallest mammals on the force were wolves, and most of the others were megafauna like rhinos and elephants. That's reflected in the training regime at the Academy. But if we're to serve the whole community, we need officers who can literally fit in better. So we need training that can enhance their strengths, not point out their weaknesses."

The debate was put on hold as the lasagna was cleared out, and warm blueberry pies were brought out to the tables to be cut up and consumed. Mr. Big, Fru-Fru, and Little Judy were provided with tiny, shrew sized blueberry tarts.

"Oh, this is _delicious!"_ Fru-Fru gushed, while Little Judy smeared her entire face with her portion. "Who made it?"

"Gideon Grey, he's the best pastry chef in the Tri-Burrow area," Bonnie told her.

"He open a bakery in Little Rodentia," Fru-Fru declared. "Daddy, can we make him move to Zootopia, _please_?"

Judy laughed. "I think his shop would take up too much real estate in Little Rodentia. He's a fox, like Nick."

Fru-Fru looked over at her father, eyes pleading, "Daddy, _please_? We could make room for him in Tundra Town!"

"No, sweetheart, Daddy can't do that," Mr. Big demurred. He licked his muzzle thoughtfully. "Tempting though."

After dinner, as twilight began to settle and the fireflies began to come out, Judy sat with Nick and Mr. Big by a table on the back porch, sipping iced tea. Out in the yard, Raymond and Kevin were running around on the grass, their arms outstretched. Fru-Fru and Little Judy riding atop Kevin's head, and each of the polar bears having a dozen bunny kits clinging to their arms, the bunnies laughing in delight, as the bears ran in circles making airplane noises.

"You have a lovely home, Judith," Mr. Big said. He gave a little sigh, settling back on his jam jar stool to look out over the fields. "It reminds me of my family's house in the old country. It was a farm such as this, with acres of olive trees. A very peaceful place."

"Thank you," Judy said. "I like coming back here, even if Zootopia is my home now."

The shrew raised a bushy eyebrow. "So you will return? This is a good thing. I was wondering, after you suffered your injuries."

"I want to." She felt a cold chill run through her that had nothing to do with the fading light. "I… _hope_ to. I don't know if I'll be able though. I have to pass the ZPD physical again." She didn't add, _I barely made it the first time._

"You must, child. Zootopia needs its hero bunny cop." Mr. Big glanced over at Nick, "And its hero fox cop as well."

"I"m not a hero, I'm just a mammal doing his job," Nick said, taking a sip of his iced tea, some of the tension that had been running through him seeming to have been dissipated with the uneventful conclusion of dinner.

" _Hero,_ " Mr Big insisted, "Without you both, Belleweather and Volkov would have burned Zootopia to the ground. A hero deserves to be rewarded. You are making it very hard for me to reward you, Nicholas."

He shrugged uncomfortably. "Like I said over the phone, it looks bad. I"m a fox, Mr. Big, the first fox cop. I _have_ to be a good example, to make it easier for all the foxes that come after me. If I start looking like just another sly huckster, taking whatever he can get on the side, I might be the _only_ fox cop in the ZPD for a very long time."

Mr. Big nodded slowly. "That I can understand. You refuse not just for yourself, but for all your fellow foxes."

"Something like that, yeah."

"Can you think of anything else that I might give you, that would not look so bad? I must give you something, Nicholas. You are owed."

Nick frowned, running a fingerpad along the edge of his glass. "Well, there's one thing..."

"Mmm?"

His frown deepened. "We never found Volkov's body. Her organization is broken up, and the odds are that she died taking that header off the falls, but there's always a chance she might still be out there and trying to get revenge." He grimaced. "When she went after Judy, she also kidnapped Bonnie and Stu. Volkov likes to make things _really_ personal like that."

"You are worried for your mother?" Mr .Big asked gently.

'Yeah," Nick admitted. "If anything were to happen to her, I don't know what I'd do."

"You wish her protection? Like when I protected Judith after Volkov's assassin attacked her?"

"Yeah," Nick agreed. "That would ease my mind quite a bit, more so than any money you could give me."

Mr. Big nodded. "I have some wolves, more discreet than my bears, who would be able to keep an eye on her. I will do this for you."

"Thank you, Mr. Big, seriously," Nick agreed, shaking the shrew's paw very carefully, all of the worry running through him during this visit finally disappearing.

The shrew stood up from his seat, taking a walk around the perimeter of the table. "We need you both back in Zootopia. These Night Howler and Night Hunter drugs, they are not going to go away. Once something is made, it can never be unmade, it will always haunt the societies we build. The knowledge to make these drugs is out there, and we cannot hope to destroy every Night Howler plant in the world. Someone _will_ make them again.

"But Zootopia is strong. For three months it held together, while Bellewether darted predators and made them savage. There were enough mammals, predators _and_ prey, who _believed_ in the dream of Zootopia, that were willing to fight for it, even as Bellewether tried to tear it apart. You two, fox and bunny, predator and prey, you also believe in what Zootopia _can_ be, even when it does not live up to that dream. You must return, to help your fellow officers keep the dream alive as well."

Judy and Nick both straightened up in their seats. 'We'll try, Mr . Big," she said.

The old shrew smiled. "Good."


	10. Chapter 10 Married to the Mob

Judy was sitting on a carved log stump in the backyard, diligently doing her ten (and _only_ ten, on pain of Nick's snark) forearm curls with a two-pound dumbbell, when her mom came up to her, bearing a pitcher of lemonade and a pair of cups on a tray.

"What's up, Mom?" she asked, setting the dumbbell down.

Bonnie set the tray on a second nearby stump, then pulled up another to sit beside her. "Oh, just checking up on you. How's your arm?"

Judy rubbed her shoulder and grimaced. "Weak. I'm working on it." She looked closer at Bonnie's troubled expression and lowered ears. "Something on your mind?"

"Judy, how do you know that Mr. Big person?" she asked, her voice serious. She began pouring out a cup lemonade and handed it to Judy.

"Like I told you, he's a prominent Zootopian businessmammal," Judy said, taking the cup from her and sipping as she tried to come up with an innocuous answer. "I saved his daughter from being crushed when I was pursuing a suspect in LIttle Rodentia, and later he helped us in resolving the Night Howler case. Fru Fru ended up naming her daughter after me, which made me her godmother, which I gather is a pretty big deal in their family. So he's taken, er, kind of a personal interest in me."

Bonnie's nose twitched, obviously not ready to accept this explanation. "But Judy, doesn't he seem, well, _odd_ to you?" Her voice dropped down to a conspiratorial whisper. "Are you sure he isn't with… _the Mob_?"

Judy, who'd had been taking another sip of lemonade, only barely kept herself from spewing it into Bonnie's face. When she'd finished swallowing, she managed to ask blandly, "What was your first clue, Mom?"

"Well, that huge white limo, all those polar bears giving folks the hairy eyeball, the way Nick seemed so nervous around him." Bonnie paused in surprise. "Wait, do you mean you _knew_?":

"Yeah, Mom," Judy replied. She raised her paw to stop Bonnie's next question. "In Zootopia Mr. Big basically _is_ the Mob."

"For pity's sake, why haven't you arrested him then?"

Judy rubbed her paws over her face briefly, trying to form the right words. "Look, Zootopia is… _complicated._ Mr. Big is one of those complications. He's a mobster. He runs protection rackets, illegal gambling, tax evasion schemes, you name it. But he doesn't tolerate drugs or mammal trafficking, and he doesn't let anyone who might get a clawhold in Zootopia. Also, he keeps an eye on things in Little Rodentia, which for the longest time the ZPD didn't even go into because most of their cops are megafauna who would as much a danger to innocent citizens as criminals. He's the devil we know. So the ZPD puts up with him, because the alternative might be a mammal that _would_ stoop to drugs and prostitution, and possibly worse things, like Volkov."

Bonnie was still looking disturbed. "And you're _all right_ with that?" she asked.

"It doesn't matter if I am or not. It's the way things are. With Mr. Big in power things are, if not perfect, at least stable." She shrugged. "Stable is good. It means people can get on with their lives without worrying about the future too much. Unstable… Well, you saw the news during the Night Howler crisis."

"I just…" Bonnie shook her head. "You really want to go back to that? To making compromises like that? I thought you wanted to make Zootopia a better place."

"I do," Judy said, trying to fight the feeling of uncertainty growing in her heart. "It is a better place now. The Night Howler incident brought up… Well, a lot of stuff that had been ignored, or pushed aside. People are _talking_ to each other about the city's problems, not just working around them or pretending they don't exist."

"But Mr. Big isn't one of those problems?"

"He is… _but_ there are worse ones in the city. Would I prefer him to be an honest mammal instead of a crook? Sure. Whatever his faults, he's got a code he sticks to, and so far it's been in Zootopia's favor." Judy ran her paw over her ears, flattening them to her head briefly as she thought. "It's like the Night Howler plants. You know that they're dangerous. They made your own brother go crazy and _bite_ you. But Dad still uses them to keep the bugs out of the crops. Should he stop, because you know something bad might happen if someone chews on them?"

"No, of course not," Bonnie said, shaking her head. "But they're just plants. They don't mean to hurt anyone."

"They're still dangerous," Judy pointed out. "But you keep them around anyway, because they're usefulness outweighs their risks. Same goes for Zootopia putting up with Mr. Big."

Bonnie was still frowning. "That sounds like an awful lot of compromising, dear."

Judy let out a very Nick-ish snort of amusement. "Don't I know it..."


	11. Chapter 11 The Midnight Hour

**TWO AM**

The hours between Midnight and the grey predawn light had always been a magic time for Nick. Three quarters of Zootopia would be asleep, leaving it to the nocturnal animals like bats, raccoons and foxes. The street lights would be dimmed, and the shadows would lengthen. Sometimes Nick could walk for hours up and down the streets without seeing another soul, but knowing they were there, watching. It was something no daylight oriented mammal could really understand, that feeling in the air, the knowledge that there was a second Zootopia, occupying the same physical space as the sunlit one but so profoundly different in many ways.

Tonight for example, he'd taken a long walk to the tarmac two-lane road leading into town, only turning around when he'd reached the outskirts of town, listening to the crickets chirp in the grass and the occasional hoot of an owl. Then he turned back, whistling to himself and walked around the house to the back porch to catch a few winks before the Hopps clan began to wake up and start their long work day.

To his surprise, he found Judy waiting for him, sitting on the porch with her paws between her knees, ears flat and hanging low behind her head.

"What's wrong?" Nick asked, sitting down beside her.

Judy shrugged, looking down at her feet. "Can't sleep," she muttered.

"Pain?"

"No."

"Bad dreams?"

"Yeah," she admitted, and then added, "I texted Clawhauser last night and bullied him into emailing me copies of the evidence photos from my mauling."

"What?" Nick exclaimed. "Why would you want to look at those? No wonder you're having nightmares."

She finally looked up at him. "Because it didn't seem real to me. Nick, I can't remember any of it happening. My last memory is of me turning the corner into that alley, and then waking up in the hospital with you sitting beside me. Almost two weeks of my life between those moments is a complete blank."

"Judy, I told you the whole story about what happened," he said patiently. "Looking at a bunch of photos of bloodstains on the ground isn't really going to add much to it."

She took in a breath. "I also got the footage from both our body cams."

"Jesus H. Christ on a Moped, no wonder you're having nightmares. Chief Bogo would have you and Clawhauser's ears if he found out you accessed evidence without cause like that." He could just imagine what the footage from Judy's cam looked like. All that would really be visible would be a quick swipe of the polar bear's paw, a blurred view of the street as she flew the air, then a thud as she hit the wall and himself standing over and trying to give first aid.

"Nick, there was so much blood. What would you have done if I'd died?" Judy asked.

He reached over and gave her paw a strong squeeze. "I would have been a mess, I won't deny it. But I wouldn't have done anything stupid."

"You're sure?"

He smiled. "Come on, Carrots. You think I'd want to get to the Rainbow Bridge only to have you waiting for me on the other side, shouting, 'Nick! You _dumb fox!_ '"

That finally got a laugh from her, or at least an amused snort. "Thanks Nick," she said.

"Not a problem. You willing to take a word of advice though?"

"Sure." 

He squeezed her paw again. "Don't dwell on this. You start going over alternate scenarios about what could have happened and you'll spin in circles until you're sick. You can't change the past, and trust me, I know how wishing you could can eat at you. Just concentrate on moving forward, towards the goal in front of you, not looking back at the mistakes behind you."

Judy smiled. "Thank you, Nick. I'll try to remember that."

"You better." He smiled back at her. "You think you can get back to sleep now?"

"I think so, but…" She swallowed. "You said I had first dibs on napping in the hammock with you, right?"

"I… Yes, I did," Nick said, thankful that there was no way Judy could see the blush in his ears as he clambered into the hammock, and then helped her to nestle against his side.

 _This is a very,_ _ **very**_ _bad idea,_ he thought to himself, even as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Judy's body may have been small, but it was surprisingly heavy as she curled up against him, all muscle and little fat, her high metabolism making her skin and fur warm enough that he left the sleeping bag he slept in unzipped even with the night's chill. "Comfy?" Nick asked softly.

"Mmm hmm," Judy murmured back, pressing herself a little closer, her eyes already closed.

 _She's just a friend,_ Nick told himself firmly. _Your friend and your partner, and that's_ _ **all**_ **.** Like he'd told Tommy, he couldn't ask her to be anything more.

But lord was she soft and warm…


	12. Chapter 12 The Morning After

**Morning After**

The next morning Nick woke up to the triple realization that 1) his right arm, trapped underneath Judy's body, had fallen asleep, 2) one of her ear tips had worked its way into his open mouth while he was sleeping and he'd started unconsciously nomming it, and finally 3) he really had to pee.

Judy was still pressed tightly to his side, one of her knees digging painfully into kidney, which really was _not_ helping the bladder situation. When he made an experimental move to pull his arm free she let out a soft mewl and just snuggled in closer. Spitting out her ear and softly calling out "Carrots?" only resulted in getting a wet ear tip in his face as she turned her face away from the noise. He turned his head the other way, rubbing his cheek dry with free paw, and finally spotted the six year-old bunny kit in a polka dot dress staring up at the scene in the hammock.

"Which one are you?" Nick asked softly. With a couple of exceptions like Tommy, he'd given up trying to keep track of Bonnie and Stu's four hundred strong brood. His suggestion one evening of issuing everyone name tags had been greeted as a really hilarious joke, alas.

"I'm Lilly," the little kit answered. "Mom sent me to wake you up for breakfast and ask you if you knew where Judy was."

"She's right here," Nick answered. Lilly responded by grabbing the edge of the hammock and trying to pull herself up to see, nearly dumping Nick and the still sleeping Judy out before she let go. Judy slid all the way atop Nick and thank _God_ she was still asleep, because there was another problem that was… rising… to attention and he really didn't want her waking up feeling _that_ underneath her _._

"Why's Judy in the hammock with you?" Lilly demanded.

"Because she had a bad dream and needed help getting back to sleep," Nick answered truthfully. By six year-old standards this should be perfectly logical, he hoped. "Tell your mom we'll be along in a few minutes."

"Okay!" Lilly hopped back into the house, thank goodness, only to shout in a piercing voice, " _Mooooom! Judy is sleeping with Uncle Nick!_ "

Judy snorted a laugh into Nick's chest, her ears rising up to attention and whapping the back of his paw as he covered his eyes and groaned.

"How long have you been awake?" he demanded.

"Since Lilly tried to dump us out of the hammock," she replied, raising her head to look at him.

Nick tried to stretch his still sleeping right arm. _Pins and needles, pins and needles! Ow, ow, ow!_ "Great. Could you please get off me? I really gotta pee."

"In a minute," she replied, still smiling, her weight centered on… _Try not to think about that. Try_ _ **really hard**_. _Ok, not_ _ **hard…**_

"Judy," Nick said, his voice rising to a pained squeak, "I kinda need to go _right now._ "

"I'm aware of that." And she gave him a sly half-lidded smile, which reminded him of the face he used to look at in the mirror, rather than Judy's usual wide-eyed grin. Then she must have decided to opt for mercy and rolled off him and out of the hammock, landing in a neat tuck and roll that spoke volumes about her returning health. "I gotta go to my room and get changed. See ya at breakfast!" she called over her shoulder, and hopped inside.

He had to get changed too, and maybe get a shower too, before even thinking about appearing in front of Stu and Bonnie. Not with Judy's scent rubbed har— _deeply_ , into his pelt. Nick started to pull himself out of the hammock, made the mistake of trying to hold onto the edge with his still half-asleep right paw, and fell out of it to face plant onto the porch deck. He got up again, shaking himself to full wakefulness, and headed inside to find a free bathroom.

She had been smiling at him. Even with the obvious going on right underneath her she'd been _smiling_ at him. That was… promising. _Maybe._

 _Maybe,_ he thought, and began to smile.


	13. Chapter 13 Baker's Mammal

Judy looked down at the slice of warm apple pie on her plate, a scoop of ice cream nestled beside it, and worried her incisors against her lower lip. "Maybe I shouldn't have this," she said.

Nick looked up from his own slice of apple pie, mouth already full with a bite, and mumbled around it, "Y' gonna inshult t' chef like 'at?" He nodded towards Gideon Grey, who was whistling happily as he filled a cherry pie with filling behind the counter of his bakery. Judy was sitting with Nick at one of the small tables set near the front window of the shop, for customers coming in for a quick snack. He swallowed and continued, "Besides, you earned this reward."

She had actually. Judy had jogged the six miles or so from the farm to the edge of town, huffing and sucking on a water bottle as Nick kept pace with her. It had been her furthest sustained run since she'd come back home four months ago. Better still, she'd finished it feeling exhilarated rather than exhausted like when she'd first begun her rehabilitation.

"I know I did," Judy admitted. "I'm just not sure I want to run back home on a full stomach."

"Walk back, we're _walking_ back," Nick corrected with a grin. "Try not to run your old partner into the ground."

"Thirty-two isn't old," she teased.

"Try telling me that again when you're thirty-two." He curled his lips over his fangs, like they were missing, and waved an imaginary cane, muttering feebly, "You gosh durned kids with your fancy computer phones and weird music. Back in my day we had to use CD players to annoy our parents!"

"All right, all right!" she said, laughing. "I'll finish my pie." She dug in and started chewing, Nick joining in, and conversation was put on hold for a while. You just did _not_ waste time talking when eating one of Gideon's creations.

Her right ear flicked back towards the front door as the bell above the sill chimed. Behind the counter, Gideon wiped his paws on the front of his apron and said, "Hey there, what can I do for… Oh, hello Travis." She turned her head, to see Gideon looking dismayed as his former weasel friend approached the counter.

"Hey, Gid," Travis said, his grin too sharp to be friendly. "Gimme one of those cherry pies I know you're baking today."

"Travis, why d'ya gotta keep coming back here?" the chubby fox replied, looking weary.

"Because ya make such _great_ pies, Gid!" Travis replied. "Now are ya gonna get for me, or am I gonna have t' complain about your lousy customer service?"

"H-hang on." Gideon turned towards the line of pies on the cooling rack by the wall, returning with a cherry pie in a tin. "Twelve dollars, Travis. S-same as always."

"You d-didn't b-box it up, Gid," Travis pointed out, mocking GIdeon's stutter. It took Judy a moment to realize that the fox hadn't stuttered at all when he'd cheerfully served her and Nick earlier.

Gideon had an expression on his face like he was just too tired to glare, as he reached under the counter, brought out a cardboard box, set the pie in it and closed the top, then repeated, "T-twelve dollars."

Judy took a quick glance at Nick, who was sitting up in his seat now, the plate in front of him forgotten, as he watched the little play going on by the counter, Travis apparently not noticing them when he entered.

The weasel handed over three fives, making a show of checking his receipt and counting out his change as Gideon handed them over. Then, as Gideon turned back to his baking, he reached up and very deliberately shoved the box over the side of the counter, letting it flip upside down and land with a messy red _splat_ on the clean, white and black tiled floor. "Oh, you clumsy, _stupid_ fox," Travis called out to Gideon's back.

Judy watched as Gideon's shoulders and tail stiffened, and his ears flipped back. The chubby fox then took in a deliberate breath, ears rising again as he turned around and said flatly, "S-sorry, Travis. I'll g-get you another one."

She spared another glance at Nick. He looked back at her, raising his eyebrow in an expression she easily interpreted as, _Your town, your call, Carrots._

She nodded firmly, then shot up from her seat, Nick rising up behind her, as she shouted, "You hold it right there, Travis Wickle! You'd already paid for that pie. You pushed it off the counter deliberately! Gideon doesn't owe you anything!"

Travis turned around in surprise. "Judy Hopps? I thought you went to Zootopia."

'Well I'm here now, and I ought to place you under arrest for creating a public nuisance!" Judy reached into her back pocket and pulled out her badge case, flashing it at Travis. "Now unless you want some trouble, you clean up that mess you made and stop bothering Gideon."

Travis stood up a little straighter, glaring back at her, "This is Bunnyburrow, not Zootopia, Bunny Cop. That badge doesn't mean nothin'. That stupid fox owes me a pie."

"It's all r-right, Judy…" Gideon started to say.

"That 'stupid' fox doesn't owe you anything," Nick said, stepping up to stand beside Judy. He leaned forward, until he was at eye level with Travis. "You see, the funny thing is, I'm ZPD too, just like Judy, except I disobeyed orders and got put on suspension. So while she's not allowed to make arrests outside of Zootopia, in theory I can punch any obnoxious weasel I like, and it won't go my official records." He smiled at Travis, or at least bared his teeth. "Whaddya say, want to try it out?"

Travis backed up a step towards the door. "Yeah, well.. He still owes me a pie, and I'll be back for it!" Then the weasel stepped out the door as fast as he could without running and headed down the street and out of sight.

"Th-thanks, Judy, N-nick," Gideon stuttered, looking grateful.

Judy glanced at the red splatter of cherry pie on the floor. "That happen often, Gideon?"

"N-not often." Gideon shrugged. "C-couple of times a week."

Her ears flattened to her head in anger. "A couple of times a _week_?"

Gideon nodded mutely. "I-I gotta get my mop and clean this clean this up. 'scuse me." He went over to the entrance, latching the door and turning the sign hanging in the window to "Closed" before scurrying towards the back of the bakery.

Judy traded another look with Nick. "Count of five?" he asked softly.

She nodded in agreement. "Five," she stated.

"Four," he replied.

"Three."

"Two"

"One," she finished.

Together they turned towards the door that Gideon had gone through, pushing it open and coming into a neatly kept kitchen. As Judy had expected they found the heavyset fox standing in the center of the room, fists clenched as he turned in a slow circle, tears running down his face.

"Hey, hey, Gideon," she called out. Judy stepped over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. "It's okay. It's gonna be okay," she said softly, feeling warm tears drip down on her head.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he mumbled, hugging her back clumsily. "Travis, h-he makes me so m-m-mad when he comes into the shop. I-I'd throw him out on his tailbone, 'cept… 'cept…."

"If you do, then he gets to point a finger at you and say you're a big bully of a fox, just like the old days," Judy finished for him.

"Yeah."

"And if you just suck it in and take it, then he knows he can do whatever he wants to you and you won't fight back," Nick concluded.

"Yeah." Gideon shrugged out of Judy's grip and started pacing back and forth, tail lashing. "Dangit, I worked _hard_ to build this shop. I managed to finish high school, even with my own kin telling me I was too dumb to make it. I went to chef's school, _chef's school_ , and got a degree. None of my family ever even finished community college, and I got a _degree_. Two of 'em, in Food Business and Baking  & Pastry Arts. Got a loan from the bank to start this shop, and I never missed a payment, even some months when I was just eatin' rice and chick peas to make ends meet. Managed to build a good business. Even got a deal with your folks. People come from all over the tri-burrows to have some of Gideon Grey's pies, and none if it _don't matter_ because Travis can walk in anytime and make me feel like a fat, _stupid_ ten year old kit again." He banged his fist on an aluminum countertop. "He makes me so _mad._ I _hate_ feeling mad."

"Oh, I know that one," Nick said. "Wilde 1.0 isn't someone I like very much. I hate it when people remind me of what I was like before I became an officer."

"What can we do to help?" Judy asked.

Gideon sniffed and swiped the back of his paws across his eyes, and then took in a deep breath to calm himself. "Ain't nothin' to be done. Travis ain't gonna stop, so long as he thinks can get away with it,"

Nick let a smile grow on his face. 'What if we could convince him otherwise?"

"How?" Gideon demanded.

Nick reached over and patted the younger fox's shoulder. "Let Uncle Nick think about it for a few days. I think I can come up with something."


	14. Chapter 14 Social Animals

"I'm sure glad you use your powers for good instead of evil," Judy noted, as Nick finished editing the gif on his tablet.

The fox grinned with his fangs, holding his paw over his heart. "My strength is that of ten elephants, for my goal is pure," he intoned, and then added, "Besides, I want to see if this actually works."

The set up for this particular scam had taken a couple of days. First they'd had to order a trio of discreet, Internet ready security cameras from , and convinced Gideon to allow them to install it in his store. After that it was a matter of waiting for Travis to get over their confrontation with him and slink back into the shop for another round of gratioutous pie destrucution. Judy had almost bitten through her lip watching the weasel bully Gideon again, and the poor fox's resigned reaction to it.

Then Nick had gone over the footage from both cameras, focusing on Travis' face, picking out the most mean spirited looking expressions, especially where they contrasted with Gideon's look of despair, and saving them to a separate file.

Judy rubbed her right ear in worry. "Are you sure we aren't just perpetuating the 'Weasels are inherently untrustworthy' stereotype by doing this?"

"More the 'Predators are inherently vicious' meme, but I see what you mean," Nick said, saving the file. "Given its predator-on-predator bullying, I think that might take the sting out of the other interpretations."

"Good point," she allowed. The recent increase in public awareness of bullying, especially at the school age level, would help in that regard. "Ready?" Judy asked.

"Ready," Nick confirmed, standing up and holding onto his tablet as they walked outside. Waiting for them by the back porch were some two hundred bunnies, all the ones on the Hopp's farm that were old enough to use a smartphone or tablet, and that could be spared for an hour from the day's chores. "Okay kits," he called out. "Ready to make the world a better place?"

"Ready, Uncle Nick!" came the reply in almost complete unison.

"Okay, I'm emailing the file to your phones now," Nick told them, punching a command on his tablet. Then he muttered _sotto voce_ to Judy, "Seriously, when the heck did I become _Uncle Nick_?"

Judy laughed. "They like you. Is that so weird?"

"I'm… getting more used to it," he admitted. The fox turned his attention back to the waiting crowd. "All right. I want that gif I sent you to be put up to every social media site you're connected to; Pawterest, Muzzlebook, Instaham, Flitter, and even Preyjournal if you've got an account."

"Who uses Preyjournal anymore?" a young voice called out from the crowd.

"Somebody still must read it," Nick argued. "Anyway, spread it as wide as you can. Remember: It isn't spamming if you're all using legit accounts."

There was a chorus of beeps and chimes from the crowd of bunnies, as they posted the gif to their personal sites. Nick settled back as the first of the posts appeared on his own Muzzlebook page.

YOU'LL BE SHOCKED BY WHAT THIS WEASEL DOES TO A DELICIOUS PIE! said the very click-baitey headline Nick had come up with. Below it was a brief video of Travis entering the store, ordering his pie, and then shoving it to the ground with a laugh and walking out. This was followed by a breathless description of the event, emphasising how Gideon had overcome a troubled childhood to become one of the best known pastry chefs in the Tri-Burrows area, and comparing it his former friend Travis' life of low paying jobs, poor schooling, and a string of petty offenses.

"You're sure we should have brought Travis' criminal record into it?" Judy mused, watching the gif begin to trend on her phone.

"It's public record," Nick argued. "Not to mention it makes Gideon Grey look even more sympathetic for not getting help before this, since he's basically covering for his no-good friend."

"Oh, oh, _oh!_ " Judy exclaimed, starting to hop up and down in excitement. "It just got shared on the Peaceable Predators page, and the Ruffington Postl!"

"And we are off and running!" Nick said, breaking out into a happy grin. They watched together as the gif started to be reposted on multiple sites. His tail began waving happily as the gif trended and was commented on by what seemed like thousands of users in less than twenty minutes. "Oh, this is better than I could have hoped!" he exclaimed.

Judy's phone chimed, and she quickly answered it when she saw who was calling. 'Hi, Gideon! Any good news?" she asked cheerily.

"What the heck did y'all _do_ , Judy?" Gideon asked, his voice somewhere between desperation and amazement. "I just gotta call from ZNN for an interview! And Gladys Diggs from the Bunnyburrow Better Business Bureau just stopped in to ask me how they could fix things so Travis don't bother me no more! Hold on!" There was a pause as she heard the store's landline ring in the background. When Gideon came back on his mobile he sounded in shock, "I just got a call from Gordon Ramsyou. He wants me to come on an episode of ChefMasters."

"Hey Gideon, it's Nick here," Nick said, leaning close to Judy's phone receiver. "I think you'd better get yourself a publicist before you take another call. Sounds like you're going to need one."

"What's a publicist?"

"A fellow who does all the talking so you don't have to."

"Oh yeah, I think I need one of those bad," Gideon agreed.

"Okay, I'll IM you the numbers of a couple of guys I know. Tell 'em Nick sent you."

"Talk to you later, Gideon," Judy said, as she heard the chef's other phone ring again.

"Later, Judy! And I don't how to thank y'all."

"Making you happy is thanks enough! Bye!" She ended the call and turned towards Nick. "You did _good_ , Nick!"

"Eh, it was a group effort," he said modestly, gesturing to some of her brothers and sisters who'd stuck around to watch how things turned out.

"No, they helped. _You_ were the one that came up with the idea in the first place."

He shrugged, smiling amiably. "I guess I did. Sometimes being a sly fox has its advantages."

" _Clever_ fox," she corrected, hugging his waist. "And a good mammal."

He looked down at her, green eyes wide open in delight. "Thanks, Judy." His paw reached around to unconsciously stroke the back of her head, feeling her warm grey fur. Then he took in a breath,muttered, "Ah, what the hell," and leaned down to kiss her.

Judy's arms wrapped around his neck, and didn't let go...


	15. Chapter 15 A Kiss is Just a Kiss

Later, she'd remember the moment as _that's when everything changed._

Judy kept her grip around Nick's neck tight as she felt his arms cradle her hips, lifting her off the ground as her legs wrapped around his waist. She kept her eyes closed tight as they explored each other's mouths, not wanting any distractions, especially from the dozen or so remaining sibs still hanging around the yard.

Nick's paw stroked the curve of her buttock and thigh, his breathing growing heavy. After a minor eternity she felt his mouth release hers, and she looked up at him. Though his lips were up in a slight smile, behind his eyes she could see a look of sheer terror.

"Nick, are you okay?" she asked gently.

"Yeah, fine," he gasped. "Y'know, I was totally prepared kiss my partner and best friend like an idiot without even asking her and torpedoing any potential romantic relationship before it even started never mind terminally screwing up the one we already have," he said in one breath.

"Nick, it was a good kiss," Judy reassured him. "I liked it."

He nodded. "Thanks. It was very good. A very good kiss. My first bunny kiss. Totally worked, even with your mouth being shaped different from a vixen's. Had to do some improvising there but I'm good at that."

"Nick."

"Yeah?"

"You're babbling."

"Yes, yes I am," he agreed. He looked at her, eyes still dilated, but more uncertain than outright terrified. "Should I put you down now?"

"No."

"Then are you okay with me having sex with you?"

Judy giggled. That had to be the most unsmooth proposition she'd ever heard, and that included some of the ones she'd gotten from the lunks she'd known in high school. Coming from the normally silver tongued fox just made it doubly hilarious. That though got her thinking specifically about _his tongue_ , and she dissolved into laughter, burying her face into his chest.

She felt Nick's grip on her relax slightly. "Okay, if I can make you laugh we're doing all right. I think. Unless the idea of sex with me is just inherently hilarious."

That just set her off again, and Judy found herself wiping tears of laughter onto his shirt. "No, no, you're good."

"Now you're just assuming," he replied, a proper Nick grin appearing on his face finally.

Judy laughed harder, almost slipping out of Nick's arms as she gasped for breath. "We.. haha… we gotta get to the… heh… barn."

"Barn? Judy, I think we can do a _little_ better than a haystack," he protested.

"Trust me."

"Barn it is then." He shifted his grip, cradling Judy in his arms as she kept a hold on Nick's neck. When they got to the barn she wiggled out of his grip, dodging around parked farm machinery and grabbing for a ring of keys hanging on the wall.

"Up the stairs," she said, hopping up them three at a time, while Nick followed. She unlocked the door and led him inside. It was a single large room, old carpets lining the wooden floor, with a bed along one wall, a large couch across from it, and a washstand sitting atop a small fridge in a corner. "Welcome to the Bunny Nest," Judy announce grandly.

"Nice," NIck said, looking around. "Do your parents know about this?"

"Who do you think set it up? With about three to four hundred kits living in the house, depending on who's away at college, how do you think they ever get a chance to have more?" Judy shut the door and set the latch in place, assuring they'd have privacy. Okay, there were at least a dozen witnesses who had seen what direction they were going in, but she wasn't about to mention that to Nick.

"Good point," Nick allowed. Some of his early apprehension rose back to his face. "So, um…" he began.

"I'm not a virgin, Nick," Judy said. "And I had myself fixed when I turned seventeen, so we're good there too, even if we were genetically compatible."

"Right," he agreed. "It would kill the mood to show you my medical records, I think, so are you willing to trust me when I say I'm clean?"

"I trust you, Nick," she replied firmly.

"Okay then." he stepped forward tentatively. "Now, the question of compatibility arises…"

'Nick," Judy said, cutting off any further arguments, "I see eight fingers and a tongue. Everything after that is just an extra."

NIck, _finally,_ gave her a sly smile. "Smart bunny," he said, and began helping her out of her clothes...


	16. Chapter 16 Low Key (Almost)

One of the hardest things about living alone in the city was the loss of waking up in a cuddle pile with her sisters, surrounded by warm furry bodies with a familiar, comforting scent. But this morning she had something even better. She was sitting naked in the middle of a circle formed by Nick's body curled around her, hugging his tail, listening to his gentle breathing, feeling the warmth of his fur and skin. Judy smiled, burying her face in his thick tail fur, nuzzling and breathing in his scent as a pre dawn glow appeared on the horizon outside the window..

"You awake, Judy?" she heard him murmur sleepily.

"Mmm, hmm," Judy murmured back.

Nick sat up and _streeeetched,_ yawning widely. "Good morning," he said, then asked,. "How ya feeling?"

She sat up, still hugging his tail. "I feel great. Why wouldn't I be?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Morning after regrets. A sudden case of 'My god, what was I thinking!'"

Judy giggled, squeezed his tail, and sung briefly, " _There has to be a morning aaaaaaafteeeeeer."_

Nick's ears flopped in mock horror. " _Way_ too early for the Carpenters, Carrots."

"Sorry." She smiled at him. "I wasn't doing much thinking, but I was doing a lot of _feeling._ Nick, it felt _good._ I haven't felt this good since the attack."

"Great, that's great," he replied, nodding. He glanced in the direction of the farmhouse. "Though I suppose we'd better get back and grab showers before everybody gets our scent."

She rolled her violet eyes at him. "Nick, at least a dozen of my sibs saw what direction we were heading last night, and about half of them are old enough to understand what that meant. It's not going to be a secret. Why are you so hesitant?"

Nick tugged one of his ears briefly. "I dunno. Old habits. I'm just keep thinking what Tommy and about a hundred of your other brothers could do to one fox if they thought they needed to defend their sister's honor."

"Oh Nick, c'mon! Tommy would be cool with it, and the rest of my family will be as well." She let go of his tail and snuggled against his chest. "You've got no reason to be worried or embarrassed."

"I"m not _embarrassed,_ " Nick protested, his arms circling around her as he nuzzled her ears. "I'm just not used to be so open about… well, _anything_."

"Hey, if you want to just keep things low key, I'm okay with that," Judy reassured him. "It's not like I'm going to be hopping around town shouting _HEY EVERYBODY! I JUST MADE LOVE TO A FOX, AND YOU KNOW WHAT?_ _ **I LIKED IT!**_ "

"That's nice, dear," her mother's muffled voice called up from the barn's ground floor.

"Good to know, Jude!" her father chimed in as well.

Judy let out a screech, hopped so high her ears brushed the ceiling, then dive-bombed into the pillows, burrowing underneath them as Nick began laughing uproariously. He grabbed the pillows and pulled them off her, then threw her shirt and pants at her as they hastily began to dress.

"So much for secrets," he said, still laughing.

"Yeah," she agreed, ears still blushing bright red. Together they headed down the stairs to the ground floor, where Mom and Dad were waiting for them. Judy cleared her throat, and said, "Hi guys, I sure wasn't expecting you two here. Now. In the barn. This early."

"Needed to get the tractor fueled up to do the fourth cut of the alfalfa fields," Stu told her. "Your mom came along to, uh, help out."

Bonnie, her belly clearly showing how far along she was with her latest litter of kits, just rolled her eyes. "And get some time to ourselves before everybody got to work."

Stu nodded amiably in agreement. "But we saw the keys to the Bunny Den weren't on the hook, and neither of you showed up for breakfast this morning..."

"Right. Yes. I get it," Judy interrupted quickly. She tossed the keys to Bonnie. "You guys do… whatever you're going to do. Nick and I need to get a shower. Shower separately, I mean."

"Toodles! Have good sex!" Nick said with a cheerful wave, as she hustled him out of the barn.

"And you're quoting _Firefly_ on top of everything else," Judy accused.

"Who was totally confident about about our relationship right up to her parents showing up?" he teased. "Besides, _Firefly_ was a great show. Aside from all the gratuitous Chinese without a panda in sight, Josh Weasel's creepy obsession with Summer Growl's feet, and the episode with the house full of…"

"Not even _fans_ like that episode, Nick," she interrupted. Judy looked over her own family's house and sighed. "If Mom and Dad are up so is everyone else. Which means all the showers are likely taken."

"I'm sure we can find a couple free," Nick said. Then he smiled slyly. "Or one at least."

She smiled back. "One would work," Judy agreed, and took hold of his paw as the headed inside.


	17. Chapter 17

"So what would you call us?" Judy asked Nick one morning, and they jogged along the perimeter of the farm. It was a late September morning, the air holding a biting chill as Bonnie and Stu herded the younger kits out onto the school bus and the older ones to the fields to finish the grain harvest.

"Well, I'm Nicholas P. Wilde, and you're Judith L. Hopps," he replied, grinning at her. In less than a month Judy was going to retake her physical exam, and from the looks of her she was more than ready. She'd regained her confidence, her energy, and so much else.

"You know what I mean," she huffed, swatting at him playfully as he dodged out of the way. "Would you call us lovers, friends with benefits…?"

That was another nice thing. After the little morning surprise with Bonne and Stu, they'd settled into their lovemaking with an ease that Nick could only marvel at, given some of the past relationships he'd been in. They'd didn't make love every night, or even every week. But when they did, they did it with a feeling of sheer joy at being together he wished he could bottle it up.

No, that was silly. Trying to bottle up something like what Judy gave him would be selfish to an extreme. She loved the world, it seemed like sometimes. He was just lucky enough to be on the same planet as she was.

"I don't like labels, to be put on neat little boxes folks can stuff us in," he replied. "We're Nick and Judy. Friends and partners. Everything else is just window dressing."

Judy nodded. "I like that," she agreed. Then she smiled impishly. "Speaking of windows: What kind of curtains would you like when we move in together?"

Nick almost tripped when she said that. "You want to? Move in with me I mean, when we get back to Zootopia?" By mutual agreement they still slept separately when they weren't using the Bunny Nest, to keep the minimum of tongues flapping in the household.

"At the Pangolian Arms? Heck no! Think what a better place we could get if we put our rent money together!"

"Sure," he said, grinning down at her. "We could get an apartment wide enough for us to stand in with _both_ of us stretching out our arms."

Judy laughed, then stopped suddenly, leaning over and resting her paws on her knees.

"What's up?" Nick asked, ears popping up, instantly alert.

"Not sure," she puffed. "Got a little stitch in my…. my stom…" She fell to her knees abruptly, wrapping her arms around her belly as she let out a sharp cry.

"Judy! What's the matter?"

" _Hurts_ ," she cried, falling onto her side and curling into a fetal ball. " _Stomach!"_

 _Her stomach. Her surgery. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Ohshitohshitohshit..._ Nick reached for his phone…

...which was sitting beside his hammock, since he was wearing his running shorts and shirt and didn't bother wearing his fanny pack for a short run. _Dumb fox!_

"I"ll be right back!" Nick told, turning on his heel and breaking out into a sprint towards the house. They'd jogged what…. a half mile? He didn't know. All he knew now is that his legs were aching as he reached the back porch, snagging his phone off the little table by his hammock and hitting the speed dial for 999.

"Nick, what's wrong?" Bonnie asked, coming out onto the porch, brushing flur off her apron from making breakfast.

He waved at her to wait as the 999 operator came on. "Hello, this Officer Nick Wilde, ZPD. I'm at the Hopps Family Farm, it's a mile north of Bunnyburrow off Rt. 3. I've got a female bunny, age 26, suffering severe stomach pain. Ambulance requested. She's in recovery from reconstructive surgery on her large intestine five months ago. Okay, thank you."

Bonnie's eyes were wide. "Do you need our first aid kit?" she demanded.

"Yeah, get it. Quick!"

She rushed back inside, returning in a moment with a large red plastic box. "Where's Judy?" she asked.

"Northwest quarter, the wheat acreage you just harvested."

"I'll tell EMT's when the come. Go, go!" she said, waving him off.

Nick nodded and sprinted back, to find Judy still curled up in pain on the ground, tears flowing from her tightly shut eyes, letting out a keening shriek of pain with each breath. _Where the fuck is that ambulance?_

He popped open the first aid kit, pulling out a chemical heat pack. Nick snapped it in the middle to activate it and pressed it against Judy's abdomen. "Hold this here," he told her. "Okay, you know the drill. What's your pain level from one to ten?"

" _Nine_ ," she hissed through her gritted teeth, her long top incisors digging into her lower lip. Judy held onto the heat pack like she was drowning.

"What's your name and address?" It was a standard question to ask when giving first aid to a victim, to double check they were still conscious and lucid.

"I"m not doing the _stupid drill_ , Nick!"

"Name and address," he repeated calmly, taking hold of her hand. Judy gripped it tightly, and Nick could feel his knuckles sliding under the strength and desperation of it.

"Judith Laverne Hopps, Hopps Family Farm, Bunnyburrow!" she shouted.

"What's your phone number?"

Judy told him her phone number, badge number, along with a few other things that he hadn't asked, but at least proved she could still breathe properly, and had learned a more colorful vocabulary since moving to Zootopia.

They were on the third repeat when Nick heard the ambulance's sirens as it came down the road and onto the farm, bumping along the dirt tracks between the farm's neatly tended fields. BOnnie stood on the sideboard beside the driver, guiding him towards where they waited. A rhino and a cheetah emerged, wearing bright orange EMT jackets and pulling out a stretcher.

"Abdomen pain, right?" the cheetah asked, kneeling down beside them.

" _Yes,"_ Judy panted.

"Can you tell me where exactly?"

"Here," she panted, pressing her palm briefly against the center of her belly.

"Got it. What's your pain level from-?"

" _Nine,"_ she interrupted.

"We're both cops," Nick explained. "She also remembers her name, address, and phone number."

The cheetah nodded. "Right. You said she's had abdominal surgery recently?"

"She was mauled by a polar bear five months ago. Lost several inches of intestine."

The cheetah raised his eyebrows. "And she's still _alive?_ OK. Let's get you on the stretcher and get going,"

WIth the cheetah EMT's help, Nick lifted Judy carefully on the stretcher, where she was secured and then carried into the back of the ambulance. When Nick made to follow, the cheetah held up a paw to stop him.

"Sorry, officer. Next of kin only," he said.

Nick opened his mouth to argue, then snapped it shut and nodded. Even if he had his badge handy, it wouldn't pull any weight in Bunnyburrow.

"We going to County General?" Bonnie asked anxiously.

"Yes, ma'am," the rhino replied.

"I'll follow along after I give Stu an update," Nick told Bonnie.

"And I'll call your phone as soon as we know anything," Bonnie replied.

With that the EMT's closed the back of the ambulance and it turned around, lights and siren flicking on as soon as it turned onto Rt. 3.

Nick watched it go, and then started jogging back to the house again, the image of Judy writhing on the ground in pain, just like so many months ago, burned into his mind.

 _Hang, Judy. Don't give up on me now._ _ **Please.**_


	18. Chapter 18: Doubt

Tommy drove Nick the twenty miles to Tri-Burrow County General in the pickup. When they got there they both found Bonnie sitting in the waiting room, next to a very pregnant weasel, tapping her foot impatiently, a cup of coffee being ignored in her paw.

"She's in the emergency room," Bonnie told as they approached. "Poor girl was still crying pain when they brought her in. The EMT's said she'll probably have to get an MRI. How's your Pa doing?"

"Crying his eyeballs out when we left," Tommy said. "Sally and Fred are keeping him company, while everybody else keeps up with the harvest." In the grim logic of farming, a medical crisis was no excuse to leave the crops unattended, Nick figured.

"You need anything?" Nick asked her.

"I need my baby girl out of here," Bonnie said. "This is what, the third time in a year?"

"Her leg getting hurt when we ran from Bellwether, the attack by that Mafiya polar bear, and now this. Yeah, I guess it is three times," Nick agreed.

She nodded, setting her cup down on the table next to the waiting room couch. "Nick, I know you and her have done a lot of good for a lot of people, but I swear to God I wish she'd never gotten it into her head to become a police officer."

"Yeah," Nick said. He smiled ironically. "What d'ya think about me corrupting her into a fine career in con artistry?"

Bonnie gave him a motherly Look, then just shook her, laughing softly. "Might not be a bad idea."

A red panda in surgical scrubs approached them, a clipboard in his paws. "Mrs. Hopps? I'm Doctor Xióngmāo," he said in accented English. "You can come back to the examining room room if you like."

"Thank you, Doctor," she replied. "This is my son, Tommy, and Officer Wilde, Judy's partner at work. Is it alright if they come back with us?"

"Certainly." He led them through a door and into a large, busy examining room with several curtained off alcoves for patient privacy. They found Judy lying flat on her back in a hospital bed, an IV drip in her arm.

"Oh, hi guys," she said, waving her free paw cheerfully.

"You're looking better, Carrots," Nick said, ears rising up curiously.

"Oh, I'm still pretty sore, but I feel _loads_ better. Morphine is _wonderful._ "

Nick grinned. "Don't get _too_ happy on that stuff."

"Indeed," Doctor Xióngmāo agreed. "Well, we've done an MRI scan, and as you might have guessed, this is related to her injuries that your daughter received several months earlier."

"What's the matter?" Bonnie asked anxiously. "I mean, it's been months, surely a stitch couldn't have popped."

"No, nothing like that," he said. "The problem is with the restructuring of Judy's large intestine, it no longer can hold its natural shape. In her case, it's shifted around and is literally 'tied up in knots' pinching off the blood flow to certain parts of it. Hence the sudden onset of pain she experienced earlier."

"So what needs to be done?" Bonnie asked.

"There is a good chance that it might shift back into position naturally. Once that happens the crisis will have passed. If it does not within the next several hours however, we may have to prep her for surgery. We would have to go in and move things back in place, to make sure her intestine is getting its proper blood supply, and does not turn gangrenous."

The cheerfully stoned expression on Judy's face faded, as she contemplated more surgeries on her stomach. "I don't want to have surgery again. Damn… damnit, I was getting _better."_

Bonnie stepped over to grip her paw. "It'll be alright, sweetheart. That's only as a last resort."

"Definitely a last resort," Dr. Xióngmāo agreed. "In the meantime we are keeping her on morphine for her pain, and applying heat to her abdomen to ease her discomfort and hopefully encourage everything to slide back into place."

"Thank you, Doctor," Bonnie said.

"If you have no other questions, I must attend to my other patients now. Good day to you." Dr. Xióngmāo gave them a brief bow and stepped out, leaving Nick and Bonnie alone with Judy.

"You gotta quit giving us scares like this, Carrots," Nick said lightly. "Otherwise my tail is going to have more grey than yours soon."

"Sorry." She smiled up at him, the weak expression soon turning down into a frown. "I'm sorry you wasted so much time, trying to get me back into shape."

"Hey, hey, don't talk like that," he told her. "This is just a little speed bump, okay? You'll get past it."

"What would have happened if we were out on patrol, Nick?" Judy demanded.

"We'd call in a Code 20 and take you to the emergency room. You really think you'd be the first officer to call in sick while on patrol?"

"No, but…" She tugged her paw free of Bonnie's grip and waved at her belly. "This isn't going to just _go away._ If it happened once, it could happen again. I can't be a patrol officer if I can't…"

"Sweetheart," Bonnie said, catching her paw again. "You are tired, you are hurting, and you are half-loopy on medication. This isn't the time to be making big decisions about your life. Wait until you've been released and have a few days to think it over. Okay?"

"But I…" Judy caught herself, and nodded briefly. "Okay, I'll wait until I'm home. I promise."

"That's my brave girl," Bonnie said, leaning over to kiss her cheek. "Are you going to be all right if I have Tommy drive me back home for a bit?"

"I'll stay here with Judy," Nick reassured her.

"Thank you, Nicholas."

Judy collected a hug from her mom and brother, and they left, leaving Nick alone with her.

"You're going to be all right, Carrots," he reassured her, petting her arm.

"You don't know that, Nick," she said darkly. "And I don't want to be steering a desk the rest of my career like…" She bit her lip and shook her head. "And now I'm insulting Clawhauser. I'm such a _jerk_."

"You're just not feeling good," Nick said firmly. "If you want to kick yourself, at least wait until you can stand up again."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Ha. Ha."

"Besides, if you're going to be on the desk, at least you'll have me for company."

Judy looked at him in confusion. "You wouldn't have to stop patrolling if did, Nick."

He shrugged in agreement. "I wouldn't have to, but being on patrol wouldn't be the same without you. I'd rather be on the desk with you, than walking a beat with someone else." He poked her in the shoulder. "Consider it motivation to get your tail back in gear."

" _Jerk,"_ she growled, the word belied by the smile in her eyes.

Nick smiled at her. "For you, I'll be whatever you need."

"Thank you."


	19. Chapter 19 Boom

By that evening Judy's stomach had fortunately unknotted itself without need for surgical intervention. After holding her for 24 hours just for precautionary observation, they finally let her loose late the next afternoon. An orderly wheeled her out to the curb, where Nick waited for her in the pickup truck.

"Where's Mom and Dad?" Judy asked, as he helped her buckle her seat belt. She might have been recovering, but her belly still felt sore, and she was grateful for Nick's careful pampering.

"Back home. There was a problem with the grain silo's delivery chute. Tommy and your dad are fixing it, while your mom is keeping track of finishing the harvest in the other fields," he explained. "As odd fox out, I got elected to pick you up. Not that I mind that at all," He started up the truck and pulled out onto Rt. 3. "So, how are you feeling?"

"Sore and tired," she admitted. Judy let her head flop back against the seat. "It feels like when we first arrived here coming from Zootopia. I've backslid five months."

"It's not that bad," he countered. "Believe me, I saw you back then. So did everyone else. Okay, maybe you'll need a few days to get back up to speed, but you aren't recovering from major surgery this time."

"Maybe you're right," she said quietly. Judy remained silent during the half-hour drive back home. Nick, probably sensing her mood, didn't try to jolly her out of it.

Nick turned the truck onto the dirt road leading to the farm. The setting sun was just going down past the farmhouse's roofline, haloing it in light.

"It's a pretty place, isn't it?" she asked them, as they bumped slowly up the road.

"Sure is," he agreed. "Quiet, compared to Zootopia."

"Yeah, quiet," she said. "Sometimes quiet isn't that bad. Maybe it's what I need."

"You've had five months of quiet," Nick replied. "I thought that would be enough."

"Maybe." She tugged at her left ear in agitation. "To be a cop in Zootopia, you have to be ready for anything, any crisis, at any time." Judy sighed quietly. "I'm not ready."

"Not ready _yet,_ " Nick said.

"Not ready _period_." She turned to look at him as the truck pulled to a stop and he killed the engine. "To be a police officer, you have to have an… an _edge_. Confidence in yourself." Judy held up her paw as Nick began to voice another objection. "You have been _great_ at getting me back into shape. And you've been a terrific cheerleader, believing in me when I wasn't sure I believed in myself. I just… What if a crisis comes, and I'm not up to it? Who's going to pay the price for me failing?"

"You can't be a perfect person 24/7, Judy. Nobody is," he replied, leaning his crossed arms on the steering wheel. "And _what if_ is a pretty toxic question, if you take it too far. _What if_ you fail? What if _I_ fail? What if someone is hurt because you _weren't_ on patrol a particular day? You keep that up, your head will start spinning so fast those big ears of yours will be tied up in knots."

"I know, _I know,_ " Judy said. "It's just…"

There was a muffled _boom_ off to their left, in the vicinity of the barn. Judy's head snapped in that direction, just in time to see a plume of toxic looking black and brown smoke puffing out of the farm's grain silo. As she watched, there was a shriek of overstressed metal giving way, as the silo began to topple over, sheets of corrugated siding falling from its frame, smashing into the back of the hopper trailer parked beside it.

"Dust explosion!" she shouted, hopping over Nick's lap and through the open driver's side window. She pelted towards the wreckage, racing past a stream of confused bunnies that were rushing out of the house, blocking poor Nick as he tried to follow, the truck's first aid kit under his arm.

"Help!" she heard her dad shout. Judy leaped into the hopper trailer, which was filled with grain. She found Stu half buried in the stuff, moaning loudly.

"Dad, are you hurt? What happened?" she demanded.

"Busted… my goldurned hip… I think…" he gasped. "We'd just finished filling the hopper when the circulator fan on top of the silo gave out, and I was on the roof trying to get it working, while Tommy..." Stu's eyes went wide. "Tommy was at the bottom of the silo, riggin' up a temporary blower. I think he's underneath all that!"

"Don't try to move, Dad!" Judy told him. "I'll look for Tommy." She dropped back down over the wide, where a crowd of her siblings were standing around _way_ too close to the wreckage. She spotted Nick and waved him over urgently.

"I already called 999," he reported. "Fire & Rescue are on their way."

She nodded in thanks, then said urgently, "Nick, Dad's in the hopper with a busted leg. He thinks Tommy is trapped in the wreckage. I need to try and find him. Give me the first aid kit, while you take care of crowd control and make sure no one else was hurt."

"Got it!' He tossed the kit to her, then turned to face the crowd, waving his arms widely. "Get back! Everybody _get back!_ You're blocking where the ambulance needs to be when it gets here!"

The crowd of bunnies began shuffling backwards, as Judy turned to face the remains of the silo. The base of the silo was a twisted mess of steel girders, and crushed corrugated siding, laying atop the conveyer belt that had been running grain from the silo into the bed of the trailer.

"Tommy, you in there?!" she shouted. She waited to a count of five, ears rotating back and forth as she listened for any sign of him, trying to ignore the murmur of all her sibs as Nick continued to urge them out of the way. Then she called again, listening, and was finally rewarded with the sound of a faint, echoing groan from under the wreckage.

Judy dropped to all fours, and then onto her belly as she began squirming underneath the debris, angling towards the direction of moans, yelping once as her forearm brushed against the broken tip of a support spar. There was barely six inches of clearance as she pushed herself forward. _If this stuff shifts…_ But Tommy faced the same dilemma. If she could find him she might be able to use some of the debris to shore up the junk hanging over their heads. The air was thick with smoke and burned grain flakes, making it difficult to breathe. She pulled her shirt up over her nose and mouth, violet eyes watering.

"Tommy!" she called again. "Where are you?"

"Help!" she heard Tommy call back, close now. Judy skinnied under a bent piece of corrugation, and found herself in a little alcove formed by debris that had fallen atop the portable industrial fan Tommy had been hooking into the side of the silo when it had blew. Tommy lay under a pile of metal, his legs crushed and trapped, his grey fur now dark charcoal from all the burned grain dust, a long, deep cut across his forehead.

"Tommy, I'm here!" Judy said.

"Hey… hey, Jude," he coughed. "Thought you were at the hospital still."

"I got out. Just in time it seems like." She popped open the first aid kit, pulling out a large square of gauze from a sterile packet. "Here, hold this over your mouth so you don't breath so much dust, okay?"

"Thanks." Tommy took the gauze and did as instructed, while Judy flicked on the small flashlight hanging from her keychain, aiming it at her brother's eyes. They were enlarged, and didn't track as she moved the light from side to side.

"Hey, how many fingers am I holding up?" she asked, making a V sign. Though she wasn't an EMT, every ZPD officer had enough first aid training to at least keep a victim stable until professional medical help could arrive.

"Uh, four?" Tommy said, squinting uncertainly.

"Yeah, you got a concussion," Judy concluded. She dug into the box, pulling out a pair of tourniquets and wrapping them around each of Tommy's legs, just below the knees, to prevent any further blood loss. She was just pressing a bandage his head wound when she heard the sound of ambulance sirens in the distance.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. Judy pulled it out to see Nick on the MuzzleTime chat window.

"Calvary's arrived, Carrots," he said. "I thought it'd be a good idea have the app up, to help them get an idea of the situation before they go in."

"Good thinking, Nick," she agreed. Judy did a slow pan around the little alcove, concluding with a closeup of Tommy's wounds. "Let them know we're about ten feet in, I think. It's traversable by a bunny, but only barely."

"Think we got that covered. I'm gonna sign off and show the vid to the rescue guys. _Caio!_ "

"You're gonna be okay, Tommy," she reassured him. "Help is on the way."

"That's great, Jude," he replied. He squinted up at her in confusion. "Hey, weren't you in the hospital?"

A moment later there was a loud, " _Hello!_ " from the direction Judy had originally came. She called back, and a few seconds later a weasel wearing a fireman's hardhat and breathing gear scurried into the alcove, dragging a large kit bag behind him. Judy was forced to move back against the far wall to make room for him in the now very crowded alcove. "Hey, you must be Tommy and his sister," the weasel greeted them cheerfully. "I'm Scott, but you can call me Scooter if you want."

"Scooter?" Tommy asked woozily.

"Yeah, 'cause when stuff like this happens, I scoot underneath all the mess to get to people. Now let's get you checked out, okay?" Scooter pulled out a mask with a small oxygen bottle attached to it, and pressed it to Tommy's muzzle, after he pulled the improvised gauze mask away. "That's for you. Ma'am, you can use my buddy hose if you want."

"Thanks," Judy said, grabbing the spare regulator hanging off the oxygen tank on Scott's back. She slipped it into her mouth, breathing in fresh air greedily.

Scooter busied himself with checking Judy's tourniquets, and the bandage on Tommy's forehead, then slipped a blood pressure cuff on his patient's arm while checking for signs of concussion like Judy had. "Yeah, you got banged up quite a bit, but you're being a great patient so far. Looks like your sister hasn't left me much to do." Despite the assurance, he pulled out an IV bag filled with plasma from an insulated pocket of his kit bag, handing it to Judy. "Just hold this up for me while I get the IV inserted, okay?"

"Sure thing." Judy watched as Scooter inserted the IV into Tommy's arm, and then opened her brother's shirt to shave a few squares off his chest for and paste monitor pads in place to watch his heart rate.

"Okay, now we're just going to sit tight and wait for the guys with the jaw of life to cut the debris away, so we can move you safely out of here," Scooter concluded.

"Thanks," Tommy mumbled under the oxygen mask.

"You ever ride in a helicopter?"

"Nope."

"Well, you're gonna get your chance. We'll be flying you from here straight to Zootopia General."

"Wow."

Scooter leaned back towards Judy, tugging his mask down to say to her softly. "With his legs stuck under there, it's looking like a pair of compound fractures for sure. Bit more than County General can handle."

"I figured," she agreed.

"You did a good job getting those tourniquets in place," Scooter continued. "Otherwise he might have bled out before I could get in here. Where'd you get your first aid training? Are you an nurse, or an EMT?"

"No," Judy replied. She felt her spine straighten up for the first time since her collapse yesterday, and smiled. "I'm Officer Judy Hopps, ZPD."


	20. Epilogue

_One month later._

" _Go Judy!"_ Nick shouted, as Judy sprinted for the finish line at the end of the half-marathon. She dashed across it, coming to a halt right where he waited at the sidelines, Stu and Bonnie standing beside him, while Tommy sat in a wheelchair, his legs still encased in plastic casts, pins holding his shattered bones together as they healed. Everyone cheered and hugged her, while Judy panted, sweat staining her training singlet.

"Thanks guys," she said, after collecting a hug from each.

Major Friedkin, a polar bear and head of training at the ZPD Academy, walked up, a grim expression on her face. But she couldn't hold it long, and broke out in a grin as she bellowed, "You _pass,_ Fluffbutt!" She snapped off a salute to Judy, who returned it with a laugh. Friedkin held out a paw. "Congratulations, Officer Hopps. Welcome back."

"Thank you, Major," Judy replied. She turned towards Nick and rested her forehead on his chest. "I am so _beat_ right now, but I'm hungry too.'

"We'll take you out for a salad, sweetheart," Bonnie reassured her.

"Works for me." Together they strolled towards the Academy gates and the visitor parking lot, where her parents had parked the rented van with the wheelchair lift. "How are you doing, Tommy?" she asked as he wheeled himself along.

"I'm okay," he said, giving the wheelchair a shove. She'd offered to push him exactly once when he'd gotten out of Zootopia General. Tommy's refusal of her aid had been polite, but didn't brook any argument. "Gonna be at least another four weeks in this dang chair, and maybe crutches after that. Feel so darned _useless,_ " he muttered. He shrugged. "Guess I shouldn't whine so much. You went through everything you did, and ran a marathon afterward."

"Only half of one," Judy corrected. "And I still had six months of therapy before I ran." She squeezed his shoulder briefly. "It's gonna be okay, Tommy."

"It'll be okay, it just won't be _easy_ ," Nick interjected. "But if you're anything like your sister, you should come out okay."

"Thanks, Nick," Tommy answered. He smiled up at Nick. "You wanna come to the farm and help with my physical therapy?"

Nick pressed his palm over the gold badge pinned to his blue uniform blouse. "Sorry, I've got _work_ to do tomorrow." He grinned, slipping his mirrorshade aviators on. "But I'm sure Judy and I will be stopping by some weekend to check up on you."

"We'd appreciate that," Stu said. After suffering through a hip replacement after his fall off the grain silo, he was getting along on a pair of crutches himself, and probably would be for a couple more weeks.

They reached the van, parked in a handicapped spot. While Nick helped Stu and Tommy inside, Bonnie took hold of both of Judy's paws and turned to speak face to face.

"Judy sweetheart, I just wanted to let you know how very proud your father and I are, that you've managed to qualify for patrol duty again," she began.

Judy ducked her head down briefly. "Thanks, Mom. I appreciate that. I know you've never been all that happy about me being a cop."

"That doesn't matter." Bonnie squeezed her palms briefly. "I'm probably never going to stop being terrified for you, but it's your life, Judy. You're an adult, I should trust that you're able to make adult decisions." She glanced towards the van, where Nick was helping Tommy set the clamps to hold his wheelchair to the floor.. "If you _hadn't_ been police officer, with all of your training, Tommy might be not be with us anymore. I'm grateful for that, and for you. You've never given up on your dreams of helping people. So I'm never giving up on you, not ever."

"Thanks, Mom." Judy hugged Bonnie tightly, and together they got into the van to head toward downtown.

Today was for her family. Tomorrow she and Nick would be back at work. Helping make the world a better place, one mammal at a time.

 **The End**


End file.
